I

X
 onnnji OCTOBER 1990

EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE

PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON
EDITOR: PATRICE ADCROFT
GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO
MANAGING EDITOR: STEVE FOX
ART DIRECTOR: DWAYNE FLINCHUM

10 25
First Word Earth
By Robert H. Bork By Cathy Spencer
The heated Croaking frogs aren't
debate over flag burning: singing our
Should there be praises: According to
limits to our freedoms? researchers, the
decline of amphibians
14 is attributed
Omnibus to human intervention.
The Who's Who
of contributing authors. 26
Space
16 By Steve Ditlea
Communications How to travel without
Readers' writes. reservations:
Leave your fear of flying
18 and your luggage
Mind at home for a trip that's
By Shari Rudavsky out of this world.
Are the desirable traits
we seek in a mate 28
biologically programmed? Explorations
By John Grossmann
22 On the Fritz: The sounds
Artificial Intelligence of dawn rise
By Keith Ferrell through the still air
A Soviet game designer and
fall on a

knows how to human-looking recorder.

play with your psyche
and hook you 30
into computer games. Arts
Cover art: After sullering a By A.J.S. Rayl
24 family tragedy. Macedonian artist Ralle Coming attractions: This
Body sought catharsis through his fall will usher

By Peter Cassidy painting. This oil, The Sun Has Gone to in a slew of science-
Lower back pain ? A new Hell, "illustrates the guilt fiction, fantasy,
device can screen and frustrationfelt. The machinery on
I and horror films that
for potential injury by thewoman's mouth is so heavy promise high-
testing weakness. that it keeps her from speaking," he says. tech entertainment.

monthly in Ihe United Slates and Canada by Or

ind-class postage paid at New ISA.NY, and al i

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Publications International Ltd Ptlnleo in the USA by Merixti'i Burda Corp. and d
possessions, and the world (enOBpl Ihe U K :•
lerrilorial j
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07601. Dislribuled in the U.K. by COMAG. Tavistock Road, West Draylon. L<

Nothing may
petsons mentioned in Ihe fiction <r i:
'
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AFO—S24 one year; Canada and elsE

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the sole properly clOmni PuljiCiituiis

 .

33
Continuum
What's the bright idea?
Teamwork based
on brain dominance; why —-* The
By
v^,
Magic
Peter Straub
Taxi a
it's hard on is

female transsexuals; yes. joy for kids and an

children, you enigma for adults; for
can lool Mother Nature; Bobo it's a destiny
finally, a good that verges on miracles.
excuse not to exercise.
96
42 Inside Story
Why Can't a Man Be By James Oberg
More Like a The Soviel spaceport
Woman. . .and Vice Versa Baikonur was
By Kathryn Phillips once a supersecret no
The differences between Westerner could
men and women penetrate. This NASA
are deep-rooted — in the insider journeyed
brain, that is. there freely and came
Researchers are finding home with an
physical evidence unprecedented look at
for cognitive disparities life for the

and, perhaps, resident cosmonauts

for sexual preferences. and workers.

52 105
Fiction: Antimatter
Dancing In Dreamtime Soulh African sightings:
By Scott Russell Sanders Witchcraft or UFOs?
a combination of
Will Uncovering proof about
ancient magic the yeti; is

and modern technology Satan getting a bad rap?

succeed in
waking the dying Earlh 80 114
from its slumber? Interview Blurring the Lines. . Stars
By Douglas Stein By Don Monkerud By Randall Black
59 It's 1990; do you know Our concept of masculinity Astronomical fantasies:
Pictorial: Tracing what sex you are? and femininity If offered
the Masters' Strokes Neuroscientist Roger is being redefined by both unlimited funds, what
By Bob Berger Gorski tells of society and surgery. would fulfill
Computer artist Lillian his conlroversial work Read about stereotypes an astronomer's dream?
Schwartz takes on the effects giving way to
bytes from art's past of sex hormones on androgyny, then take our 144
and keys the brain's quiz on sexual Star Tech
into its future. , structure and lunction. characteristics (page 88). Accessing the future.

147 152
The Omni Arcade Last Word
This month's games will By Charles Memminger
have you grabbing A taste explosion
a pencil, banging away with every mouthful of
on your keyboard, thermonuclear
or even lunging for your saiad or super collider
joystick. guacamole.
WHTHti M

STRIKE

vEffie

You always come back to the basics. ,|i M '

 FIRST IRJDRD
WAIVING THE FLAG:
Is our nation entitled to one symbol that
must remain undefiled?

he was prosecuted for a deeply the government to protect the

Robert H. Bork
offensive act prohibited by a flag, however, would not diminish
is a former
state and federal statute. the First Amendment, instead, it
federal court of
The First Amendment has al- would restore the amendment to
appeals judge
its condition before the court
and author of The ways permitted our government to
ban offensive ways of expressing made its erroneous rulings.
Tempting
ideas—though not the ideas them- One opponent of the amend-
of America: The
selves. For instance, even after ment compared the effort to stop
Political
the rulings in Johnson and Eich- flag desecration to Romania's sup-
Seduction of the
man, one would hope that our pression of speech. But suppress-
Law (The
laws can still punish a televised ing ideas that a dictator dislikes
Free Press, 1990).
speech riddled with obscenities, can hardly be compared to object-
stop a political speech made ing to offensive acts of expres-
from a sound truck at 2:00 A.M., or sion. Others noted that Adolf
prosecute a protest against sod- Hitler made defiling the German
omy laws where demonstrators en- flag a crime, suggesting, appar-
gage in the practice in public. The ently, that nothing Hitler did

Supreme Court, however, made should ever find an analogy in any

no attempt to explain why flag burn- shape or form in our society. Of
ing was not a similarly offensive course, Hitler also attacked unem-
method of expression. The major- ployment, which apparently
The Supreme Court's recent five-
ruling that flag burning is a means we must drop any social
to-four decisions allowing the burn- ity's
form of free speech implies that policy directed to reducing unem-
ing of the American flag as a
anybody can express himself ployment in this country.
right protected by the First Amend-
with any public behavior at any Still others said that allowing leg-
ment have set off an emotional de-
and the community can set islatures to prevent flag desecra-
bate. Yet the debate reveals that time,
confused no on these acts. tion equal to desecrating the
is
many Americans are limits
am not alone in my disagree- Constitution. Warren, Black, and
about the reasoning behind the I

ment with the court's conclusion. Fortas must have been Constitu-
decisions and about the appropri-
Chief Justice Earl Warren and As- tion desecrators, not because
ate response to them.
sociate Justices Hugo Black and they made up freedoms not men-
The majority opinions in Texas
Abe Fortas, three of the most lib- tioned in the Constitution—the usu-
v. Johnson and United States v.

Eicbman, both written by Justice eral Supreme Court judges in our al charge against them but be- —
William J. Brennan, rest upon one history, stated unequivocally that cause they recognized that some-
central argument; "If there is a bed- flagburning was not protected where there is a limit to freedom.
speech and could be punished. Unlimited freedom would make all
rock principle underlying the
gov- In fact, at the time of the Johnson law, which by definition restricts,
First Amendment, it is that the
decision, the government's pow- freedom, impossible.
ernment may not prohibit the ex-
pression of an idea simply be- er to punish flag burners was so A final group of opponents ar-
cause society finds the idea itself widely accepted that 48 states gued that we should not set a prec-
and the federal government had edent of overturning Supreme
offensive or disagreeable."
written statutes or laws prohibiting Court decisions with amendments
Although this statement is

both desecration of the American flag. to the Constitution. The prece-

quite true, it is irrelevant. In
Some of us support a constitu- dent, however, has already been
of the flag-burning cases, no idea
tional amendment that would al- set; in the United States, on nu-
of any sort was being sup-
low state and. federal legisla- merous occasions, we have adopt-
pressed. The flag burners were en-
tirely free to express [heir "ideas" tures —
if they choose— to protect ed amendments to overturn Su-
ina thousand other ways. Grego- the flag against defilement. Many preme Court judgments.
others have opposed this view. Un- Ultimately, the question is wheth-
ryJohnson, for example, chanted,
fortunately, the public debate er the nation is entitled to one sym-
"America, the red, white, and is

conducted slogans that drown bol that must remain undefiled.

blue, we spit on you," while he
' I

in

out sensible discussion. think so. To say that the freedom

burned a flag in Dallas. He was
Some opponents amend-
of an of speech requires that no sym-
not prosecuted for his verbal ex-
bol remain sacrosanct to say
pression because, under the ment objected to "chipping away is

Amendment, his right to free at the First Amendment." A con- something demeaning about the
First
speech was protected. Instead, stitutional amendment allowing First Amendment itself. DO
 onnruiBus
BREAKING THE BARRIERS:
One writer cracks down on stereotypes;
another reports on nature
M celebrate our twelfth
anniversary, we salute
\ several of those who
helped make our very first issue
such a success— pioneers in the
field of Omnj journalism still
atwork today.
Back in 1978, Kathleen Stein
asked the question "Can we live
"Some
forever?" with her article
of Us May Never Die." More than
a decade later, editor Stein is still
Contributors, asking hard questions, this time
from left concerning the sexes. Who's
to right: Peter smarter? More compassionate 7 Is
Straub, biology destiny? Or can we
Shari Rudavsky, switch our roles, our gender, as
Don Monkerud. easily as we change clothes?
and Kathryn Stein, who spearheaded this
Phillips. special issue, reflects on how
11WJ
T •/
WW
I
in stereo
hard
came
ties
about; "I have always re-
fused to accept the stereotypes
about a woman's role in society.
Anyone who grew up
could not help but wonder
about the differences between
in
the sexes and all the possibilities
for gender expression."
Writer Douglas Stein negotiat-
ed a maze of skyways, freeways,
and elevators, which
brought him to the seventh
at UCLA to meet with endocrinol-
Roger Gorski (Interview,
ogist
page "He is such a regular
70).
guy," says Stein. "I loved his at-
titude of 'It's really important
work I'm doing, but let's not be pre-
tentious about
it.'"
Every scientist Kathryn
it
("Why Can't a Man Be More Like
a Woman. ..and Vice Versa,"
page 42) interviewed stressed
that one can't predict the
of an individual based on
her sex. Phillips has written for
The Scientist and The Los Ange-
les Times Magazine.
-..'Sexuality is a subject that
everyone is interested in," says
Don Monkerud ("Blurring
Lines: Androgyny on Trial," page
80). "But equality is what aroused
me to report this story." Monkerud
has written for The New York
Times, The San Francisco Chron-
icle, and other publications.
Editorial assistant Shari Ru-
davsky (Mind, page 18) majored
in behavioral biology in college.
"All my friends said the only rea-
son was interested in such a sub-
ject
I
was so could
mates and sex."
I talk
In a slightly different
the Six-
present "Inside Story" (page 96)
by James Oberg, who also led the
way in our October 1978 issue
and has appeared dozens of
times in our pages (as has his
wife, Alcestis). This time he views
the Soviet secret spaceport Bai-
konur up close— a mission that
would have been impossible
back in the pre-g/asnosf era of the
finally late Seventies.
floor In the forefront of covering the
subject of artificial reality, author
Steve Ditlea (Space, page 26)
Popular Sci-
has written articles for
ence and New York magazine.
Peter Cassidy (Body, page 24)
has had many hard days and
nights, ending up with back
Phillips strain. "I'm grateful to be on friend-
ly terms with the guys who devel-
oped the Muscle Fatigue Moni-
tor," Cassidy says. He has written
for New England Monthly and Bos-
ton Business Journal.
As a child, growing up on a
farm, environmental writer Cathy
Spencer (Earth, page 25) was not
one for playingwith frogs. "Today
I
understand the importance of all
small creatures," she says.
While on assignment for Omni,
John Grossmann (Explorations,
page 28) set out in search of the
intellect sounds of nature. "My guide dem-
his or onstrated the power of listening,"
Grossmann says. "As we drove
along a dirt road, window down,
he suddenly pulled off the road
and proclaimed, 'Squeaky tree!"'
Peter Straub ("Something
the About a Death, Something About
a Fire," page 90) conjured up
Ghost Story, Koko, and more re-
cently, Mystery. Houses Without
scheduled No-
Doors (Dutton), for
vember release, will be the first
short-story collection from the
best-selling author.
Fiction writer Scott Russell San-
ders ("Dancing in Dreamtime,"
page 52) is finishing work on a se-
ries ofessays to be titled Secrets
about pri- of the Universe. His most recent
science-fiction novel is The Invis-
vein, we ible Company (Tor Books). DO
onnrui
connnnunJiCATorus
READERS' WRITES:
The many faces of Mars—what you
think about the red planet

A Mission Beyond Our Dreams olations of twentieth-century technolo-

While found. your coverage of the

I
gy will look pedestrian in hindsight, but
that's the way you get there from here.
planned mission to Mars well reported
and exceptionally thorough, I am con-
cerned by the lack of atlention to the ar- Ignorance Can Be Bliss
guments against this mission. It seems Your July 1990 article "Raiders of the

abhorrent to me that our government Lost Archives" incorrectly stated that a

would be willing to expend so much mon- dying spaceman in the movie Forbidden
ey on this program while our cities floun- Planet was mortally wounded by a mon-
der and our youth lack impetus for high- ster from the id. Actually, he was injured

er education. would dearly love to see

I
by a mind-expanding device left by the
Krell, the planet's former inhabitants,
our people colonize Mars but not at the
expense of those for whom life is still a used to boost his intelligence. His ex-
day-to-day struggle for survival. panded intelligence had the ability to
John Schlage'ler grasp the source of the monster killing
Cincinnati his ship's crewmen.
Joseph Forbes
Pittsburgh
Incredible (And Incredulous?) Journey
Iam not in the habit of writing to mag-
azines, but the lead article of Omni 's Ju- Facing the Fads
read with interest the article that dis-
ly issue, "Voyage to a Far "Planet," by I

cussed the feasibility of exploring the

Brenda Forman, was superb. have al- I

ways wondered why we have not al- Martian surface [Space, July 1990].
ready gone to Mars or at least why it was Your mention of Carl Sagan in connec-
not the very next project on the space tion with the Face and pyramids of the

agency's list. However, after reading
Ihis excellent article, I realized the incred-
ible challenges such a journey poses.
Donald
Stockton,
The July 1990 Omni was your worst is-
sue ever. Particularly Forman's "Voyage
to a Far Planet," which explains how to
go to Mars in 2020 using twentieth-
century technology! That article tells you
Cydonia region may lead readers to
think that Sagan is exploring whether
these objects are artificial. These ob-
Hip^.iss jects have been the subject of an inves-
CA tigation by Richard Hoagland, myself,
and others who have shown that these
anomalies have shapes inconsistent
with the geology ofMars and that they
are far beyond what we would expect
by chance. Throughout our investigation
of the phenomena, most of the plane-

it will cost $400 billion! What fractured tary science community, including Sa-

crystal ball did that come from? Think gan, has responded with silence and in
about it— estimating the cumulative some cases open derision,
Earl O. Torun
cost of a Mars, mission over 30 years.
In 1960 no one could have guessed a
Silver Spring, MD
fraction of the things that have corne
true since then. Space Case
John E. Dyer It's not uncommon to find the unrealis-

Wichita, KS tic attitude that space exploration can

wait until the world's troubles are over.
Brenda Forman replies: Unfortunately. But it is frightening and appalling to see

we don't yet know how to do any o! that Republican congressman Bill

those wonderful things outside of the-
ory and the laboratory. Jo get to Mars
in practice rather than Imagination.
you've got to start somewhere. You
start with what you know how to do,
Green [Forum, July 1990], on whose
word NASA sinks or swims, wallows be-
side the usual hogs of ignorance.
Thank goodness Spam didn't insist on
attaining Utopia in 1492 before under-

stretch that technological envelope, and taking any new enterprises.

with new stuff as you fig- J. M, Schell
fill in the gaps

ure out how to do it. Straight-line extrap-

Denver DO
 nniruD
PRELUDE TO A KISS:
Mating strategies are the same worldwide, but
men and women want different things

am a male attorney in my early compelling empirical data that ex- have suggested that biological dif-
forties, looking tor an attractive ist," says Buss. Regardless of cul- ferences between males and fe-
I girl whose youth will revitalize tural background, he adds, wom- males lead them to pursue radi-

my jaded soul. Enclose photo." en choose well-off men, while cally different reproductive strat-

"If in your late thirties

you are men go for young, pretty women. egies. Trivers, a biology profes-
and then you might be the
rich, Researchers gathered basic bio- sor at the University of California,
Prince Charming who can take graphical information about par- Santa Cruz, led the field in 1972
me away to a sumptuous castle." ticipants and asked them to rate when he proposed his theory of

Have you ever considered why the importance of 18 variables, in- parental investment. Trivers as-
people advertise for that ideal cluding "good financial pros- sumed species have two types of
spouse? Simple, says David M. pects" and "good looks." In all individuals: one with many small

Buss. Men and women worldwide but one country, women valued gametes (males) and one with few-

seek mates who exhibit traits as "good financial prospects" in a er, larger gametes (females). A
hackneyed as any in the person- mate more than men did. Similar- male wants to fertilize as many fe-
als; financial success, good ly, in 92 percent of the samples males as possible; he can maxi-
looks, ambition, drive. women rated ambition and indus- mize his success with quantity,
The Dating Unlike armchair sociobiologists triousness higher than men. paying less attention to quality.
Game: Biology before him, Buss, an associate When came to appearance,
it the But a female must concentrate on
professor at the University of Mich- men proved equally fussy. In ev- quality, not quantity. With a lim-
may help
prove these ery culture, males placed great- ited number of fertilization oppor-
explain why we igan, set out to pref-
choose the erences are biologically based. A er emphasis on appearance tunities! her best bet is a male
mates we do. team of more than 50 research col- than females did. These results fit who helps ensure that the few off-
Men prefer laborators spread throughout 33 neatly into the reproductive puz- spring she has prosper.
women with countries—from Zambia to Cana- zle that biologists have been try- Buss's 1989 study bore out
young bodies; —
da helped Buss cull information ing to solve, Buss says. this theory. "Males and females

women seek about more than 10,000 men and In all species the name of the have faced different constraints
game reproduction. Sci- in our past," Buss explains. "Fe-
outmen with women's marital preferences. survival is

padded wallets. "This study constitutes the most entists such as Robert Trivers males are limited by access to re-
sources, and males by access
to reproductive females."
Accordingly, men use physical
appearance to determine a poten-
tial mate's reproductive value. Ide-
als of beauty help men ascertain
a woman's age — often an indica-
tor of her ability to bear success-
ful offspring. Women play the
game differently, looking for men
who will donate resources to
their kids. Under the rubric of West-
ern culture, this translates into fi-
nancial success. "You see bump-
er stickers on women's cars,"
Buss says with a chuckle. "IF
YOU'RE RICH. I'M SINGLE."
But should people who buck
the stereotypes just toss in their
evolutionary chips? Says Buss,
"Just because something is evo-
lutionary based doesn't mean it's
desirable. Understanding the
mechanism that natural selection
created allows you to change
things, you want to. It doesn't
if

mean, however, it's easy."

— Shari RudavskyDO
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ARTIFICIAL
IfUTELLIGEflJCE
MIND GAMES:
For this Soviet scientist, there's more to
computer games than graphics
How does a computer or
video game generate
computer game designer,
Tetris {available for a number
player enthusiasm? Why of computer systems) challenges
do frustrated gamesters become players' reflexes as well as their
obsessed with making it through depth and spatial perception. The
all of a game's various levels of deceptively simple goal: Manipu-
play? Most game designers say late falling geometric forms and
the mark of a good game is sim- position them to complete a row
ply its "payability." But that can of bricks. Your failure in getting
hardly explain why even adults be- them to land where you want may
Playing with come game addicts. often prevent you from filling low-
our heads: They According to Alexey Pazhitnov, er rows. If too many incomplete
may not be the designer of Spectrum Holo- rows accumulate and reach the
socially relevant, Byte's Tetris, Welltris, and Faces, top of the computer screen, the
but good the best entertainment software game will end.
computer games combines art and psychological Like Tetris. Welltris (IBM PC,
must have appeal. "Each game must ex- Mac, Amiga) tests reflexes as
more than flashy plore different human possibili- well as depth and spatial percep-
graphics. ties,"says Pazhitnov, a scientific tion, but ups the ante with an aer-
it
They must also assistant at the Soviet Academy ial three-dimensional view of the
appeal to us of Sciences'Computing Center And Faces (IBM PC,
falling bricks.
psychologically. and the USSR's most successful Mac) also challenges memory
and powers of observation. In-
stead of manipulating shapes,
you piece together jigsawlike puz-
zles that reveal famous faces. Is
thatMargaret Thatcher's nose or
does it belong to Mikhail Gor-
bachev? Like Tetris and Welltris,
Faces is far from simple.
Pazhitnov began designing
games to test the capabilities of
new computer hardware. But
when colleagues became in-
trigued by the initial version of Tet-
ris,Pazhitnov realized he was on
to something and began ponder-
ing the fundamentals of game de-
sign. Since then he has honed his
ideas on three principal design
goals, each representing a differ-
ent level of psychological appeal.
Strategy is the most intellectu-
al of the three levels, but tactical
and operating challenges must
be overcome before strategic
goals can be achieved. "The
best games are balanced, with all
three levels in harmonic propor-
tion," he says.
Human physiology, of course,
interacts with an electronic
game's hardware. "The operating
level is defined by the game's in-
terface, whether you design the
game to be played with a key-
—
board, a joystick, or a mouse," Pa-
zhitnov says. "You must take into
account the speed of play, the dif-
ficulty of the challenge, how often
you must strike the keys, how swift-
ly you must react. These consid-
erations affect the type of game
that results and must be ad-
dressed on the operating level of
the game."
Progress and achievement are
measured on the tactical level.
"We constantly face personal
[short-term] goals that must be
achieved within a certain time
frame," he says, citing examples
like grocery shopping or reaching
a particular destination. "The
game designer must establish
choices for players on the path to
the game's conclusion," he says.
And the immediacy of a game
getting beyond a certain point
draws most directly on the play-
er's personality traits. "Your suc-
cess depends, for example, on
whether you're rigid or flexible,
whether you can focus or dissi-
pate your attention," he says.
A game's overall concept is ad-
vanced on the strategic level,
"This is where you find out how to
achieve a game's main goal," Pa-
zhitnov says.
His personal strategic goal:
achieving a balanced game de-
sign. "I don't measure a game's
levels during the creative proc-
ess," he says. "I look at them lat-
erand make adjustments after I'm
done." When casting about for
game ideas, however, he does
consider a game's potential ap-
peal. "A good computer game
must have a psychological rela-
tionship to the player's life," Pa-
zhitnov insists, "It must have an
emotional dynamic built into it." In
Tetris the emotional dynamic in-
volves staying ahead of ultimate
chaos; in Faces, it's the shock of
recognition. The sense of accom-
plishment can include, say, the
mastery of a new skill. Or it could
be just the sweet smell of suc-
cess. —
Keith FerrellDQ
 BODM
BACK TRACK TO FITNESS:
Using the new Muscle Fatigue Monitor, doctors will

physical therapy to the individual

tailor

back Their results showed that the

Until now, doctors diagnos-
ing lower back com-
plaints have had to rely
on the subjective testimonies of
their patients. Soon, however,
they will begin to use a futuristic
machine called a Muscle Fatigue
Monitor (MFM], which distinguish-
es between normal and abnormal
back function by measuring the
electrical output of local muscles.
The new device — developed
uals with
A patient being
injuries.
assessed with most accurate predictor of lower
the MFM is positioned in the unit's back pain was the rowers' recov-
molded seat with three pairs ot ery rates, or the amount of median
electrodes taped over muscle frequency that returned after a
groups in his lower back. His up- rest period. Using that measure,
per back is encircled with a large the researchers predicted which
padded strap, which he is instruct- rowers suffered lower back pain
ed to push against for two 30- with 100 percent accuracy.
second intervals separated by a As a screening tool for jobs
15-minute rest period. The com- with a high incidence ot back in-
puter records the change in pow- jury, the-MFM could save money

jointly by Boston University's Neu- er of the median frequency, or mid- for companies that lose produc-

roMuscular Research Center point, of the muscles' myoelectric tivity when workers are disabled
(NMRC) and Liberty Mutual Insur- signals. In patients with norma! and for insurance carriers that pro-

ance Company (the nation's larg- backs, the median frequency for vide their compensation. Liberty
est workers' compensation car- the second contraction decreas- Mutual estimates that 31 million
rier) —
is already being used es; an increase indicates injured Americans now have lower back
experimentally at Boston Gity muscles' faster fatigue rate. pain, and 80 percent of the pop-
Hospital's orthopedics depart- Two years ago, NMRC research- ulation wijl suffer at least one dis-

ment. Researchers are also evalu- ers conducted an experiment abling episode before age fifty-
ating its use in tailoring physical with a 23-man varsity rowing five. Moreover, Labor Department

therapy programs to those individ- team from Boston University. studies found back injuries to be
the clear leader over all others in
Researchers say reported compensation cases. In
the new 1986 alone, Liberty Mutual paid
device should an estimated $670 million for low-
do for back er back claims. Reducing the num-
injury lawsuits ber of claims and the cash
what DNA amounts paid out would reduce
typing did for premiums across the board.
paternity While a contract currently un-
suits: provide der negotiation could result in
definitive proof. mass production of MFMs within
the next five years, so far Boston
City is one of only a few hospitals
testing a research prototype.
NMRC researcher Serge Roy con-
cedes that it may take a few
years to collect sufficient data on
the normal range of muscle func-
tions before doctors can use the
MFM as a diagnostic tool. He be-
lieves, however, that the technol-
ogy is the wave of the future for

rehabilitation medicine. One of his

dreams is to test astronauts be-
fore and after spaceflights to
study the effect of space travel on
muscle deterioration.
"Five years from now," he
says, "we might even throw out
the current model and use a hand-
held unit you can put in your pock-
et and hold to a patient's back."
—Peter CassidyDQ
24 OMNI
 EARTH
ONE GIANT LEAP:
Frogs and other amphibians are telling us something
about our environment they're croaking —

dured innumerable global shifts

Last when
David Wake was
spring, scientist
hiking
manders of the Galena Lake/Mex-
ican Preserve in Colorado's Elk during their 400 million years on
In scenic Yosemite Nation- Mountains survive from a popu- planet Earth, they are highly sen-
al Park, he had the feeling that lation that once numbered 600, sitive to unnatural changes in
something was amiss. He hiked says John Harte, professor of en- their habitat. Because of theirsen-

past cool mountain streams thick ergy and resources at the Univer- sitivity, Wake says, frogs may pro-

with green algae. Where once a sity of California, Berkeley. Other vide early warning signs of com-
rhythmic croaking filled the night recent casualties: the famous jump- ing ecological dangers among —
air,a strange quiet prevailed. The ing frog of Calavaras County, Cal- them the extinction of species on
problem: No chirping frogs; no al- ifornia, which has disappeared a scale never seen before.
gae-eating tadpoles. Wake, direc- over 50 percent of itsrange; the Frogs' highly permeable skins eas-
Thanks to its tor of the Museum of Vertebrate stomach brooding frog of Austra- ily absorb toxic substances that
habitat diversity, Zoology at the University of Cali- lia, which has not been seen have accumulated in the environ-
the Northern fornia, Berkeley, soon began to since 1981; and the golden toad ment. And most species of am-
leopard frog may hear similar stories from other re- of the rain forest of Costa Rica's phibians lay their eggs in open wa-
searchers. In fact, evidence col- Monteverde Cloud Forest Pre- ter, where they float unattended
be safe
from extinction lected shows that amphibians— serve, whose numbers dropped and vulnerable to outside forces,
What really puzzles Wake and
other biologists, however, is the
disappearance of frogs and sal-
amanders from such pristine sanc-
tuaries as the mountain wilder-
ness habitats of California and the
Cascades of Oregon and Washing-
ton. "Increased ultraviolet [UV]
light from the sun, a by-product
of the thinning ozone, may be a
primary factor," says Hayes.
Female frogs in cooler climes
lay their eggs close to the surface
ofponds to maximize the warmth
of the sun.The eggs, however,
now get an extra zap of UV light,
which Hayes believes may be
enough to push these species
over the edge.
Not all scientists agree with
Hayes, however. Harte, for exam-
ple, attributes amphibian losses
for the time frogs, toads, and salamanders- from 1,000 zero in the last
to in highland areas to acid rain. In

being, but how are vanishing worldwide. "The abil- three years, according to Harte. the spring acid-laden snow melts
long will it ity to endure dramatic environmen- Even the Northern leopard frog, and ponds—just when
into lakes

be able to hide tal changes throughout the histo- once abundant throughout Colo- frogs are breeding and laying
from human ry of the earth suggests thai rado and Wyoming, is dwindling. eggs. In laboratory studies, Har-
intervention? frogs and salamanders are ex- Theories accounting for the many frogs and salaman-
te says,
tremely hardy species," says Ha- drop-off in species abound. ders show a high sensitivity to ac-
rold Morowitz, professor of biolo- Wake and other scientists, includ- id, especially during the embryon-
gy at George Mason University in ing Harte and herpetologist Marc icand larval stages,
Fairfax, Virginia. "Yet amphibians Hayes of the University of Miami, Even so, Wake believes the
are disappearing." point to these factors: the drain- long-lived amphibians are tough
Although dramatic declines be- ing of swamps; contamination enough to stick out even the
gan showing up in research stud- from pesticides; the introduction worst environmental disaster. "No
ies around 1978, it wasn't until of exotic fish that prey on tad- matter what happens," says
last year that biologists identified poles; and industries that pro- Wake, "we are not going to have
a trend. By then the losses were duce acid rain and pollution. a frog-free Earth."
acute. Fewer than. 100 tiger sala- Although amphibians have en- —Cathy Spencer DO
 COMPUTERIZED TOUR GUIDES: ,

Virtual reality for Day Trippers —the safer,

easier way to travel

^| ant to fly like Super- manned and unmanned plane- Greevy, director of the project.
I I man to the moon? tary missions. NASA scientists McGreevy's Human Interface Re-
%J %J Just stretch out your could survey potential landing search Laboratory at the NASA
arm and point to a heavenly sites and plot exploration paths Ames Research Center at Moffett
As you seem to zoom clos-
sphere. and itineraries. By simulating mis- Field, California, has pioneered
er and closer, point to the spot sions they could save untold much of the technology known as
where you want to land: Instantly amounts o! money — or lives. artificial reality and will study the

the terrain looms wherever you
turn to look.
Your journey has been synthe-
sized by a computer in the form
of "virtual reality" —
a realistic
—
3-D artificial world created in re-
sponse to a glove input device
These virtual representations
would accurately reproduce sur-
face features of the moon, Mars,
and perhaps Mercury because
they would be generated from da-
ta already collected by space
probes. The daunting task of com-
photographic and instrumental da-
ta from past space missions to
see what detail can be mapped
from them.
One of the missions to be
planned using these artificial re-
be the proposed joint
alities will

that senses your hand move- piling a database and then using U.S.-Soviet manned Mars mis-
ments and a head-mounted vid- it to create planetary environ- sion. McGreevy predicts that by
eo display that tracks your head ments is the main goal of NASA's the year 2008, unmanned Mars
position and feeds you images. recently funded Visualization for probes and rovers will collect
The necessary hardware al-' Planetary Exploration project. masses of new data on the red
ready exists to achieve "virtual "This is the culmination of my planet, which will be used to gen-
tourism," but NASA has a more lifelong dream to Visit' the moon erate and 'analyze detailed virtu-
practical goal for it: planning and planets," says Michael Mc- al representations of sites for the
manned landings around 2015.
A reel moving But there are obstacles to be
experience: overcome before these virtual re-
Soar through can exist. McGreevy cites
alities
the galaxy
a 1988 Wall Street Journal article
or even explore that notes scientists have looked
the moon's at only 10 percent of the data the
terrain without
spacecraft have sent back to
donning a Earth and closely analyzed only
apace suit—just 1 percent.
point, tilt
NASA already has all the data
your head, and it needs to construct a mode! of

then the the whole moon; but the tape re-

flight begins.
corders used to store and retrieve
those data are now obsolete and
practically impossible to find. Al-
though one recorder was ac-
quired recently from the Air
Force, Professor Mike Malin of Ar-
izona State University estimates
that it will cost $500,000 to proc-
ess the tapes, whereas a new
mapping mission would cost
more than $250 million.
Artificial reality glove input de-
vices and imaging software will
be marketed for personal comput-
ers next year. A firsthand encoun-
ter with virtual tourismmay help
boost public and congressional
support and might induce NASA
to process some of its backlog of
tapes as data sources.
—Steve DitleaDQ
 EXPLORATIONS
EARLY BIRD CATCHER:
The hills are alive with the sound of music — "

ifyou can hear above all the noiseit

Valley, Kansas, and Seattle, types and foliage textures, for dif-
where he lives. But the portrait of ferent tones in the composition.

^^V dimly lit by a half-moon. dawn across America is only a re- Not too many, or it becomes clut-
A whippoorwill cries ils name. In hearsal for his more ambitious proj- tered. need a floor, some kind
I

the distance a horned owl hoots ect — capturing what he calls "the of foundation to build the piece
mournfully. Dawn is just minutes music of the planet." on, perhaps a rock thai reflects
Quiet on the away as nature recorder Gordon The goal: the creation of sound well. Or could be grass, it

set! Being in an Hempton positions himself on the "Dawn Chorus," a 24-minute na- which makes the sound softer."
old-growth bank of black-watered, cypress- ture symphony that will also The evening chorus also proves
forest, says fringed Wambaw Creek, a South serve as a database of sounds by a good indicator of the morrow's
nature recorder Carolina low-country slough. Head- creatures great and small while — avian symphony. Besides introduc-
Cordon phones link him to "Fritz" about they still exist. ing potential star performers and
Hempton, is a dozen yards away in the under- Collaborating with nature won't soloists, it also helps Hempton de-
like standing brush. His tripod-mounted com- be easy. Increasingly, human fine his soundstage.
in a cathedral; panion with a human-looking noise taints natural sounds. Hemp- Hempton believes that nature
bird songs face has a high-performance mi- ton worries that the proliferation doesn't need improvement and in-
rise to ennoble crophone implanted in each of its of studio-enhanced composite sists on letting it speak for itself.
a sacred site. rubber ears. With the look and recordings conveys the false im- "Filters can reduce noise, but
feel of human ears, they convey pression that exhilarating, noise- they also eliminate a lot of the pres-
the ambient sounds to the micro- free listening experiences' ence of nature, take some depth
1
phones more realistically than abound, when they actually be- out of the woodpecker, all of the
bowl-shaped microphones typical- long on a list of endangered spe- body out of an owl's hoot. So I

ly used nature recordings.

in
Gradually, dawn and the cho-
rale arrive together. One by one,
the birds add their voices to
the chorus. The owls give way to
wrens, their chirping interwoven
with the whistling, tweeting,
and tremolo calls of other song-
birds. Woodpeckers add
their The music
rat-a-tat.
fuller as the stars
fade and disappear. From
here Hempton will travel
estward to the Tennes-
see mountains, then on
to the Mississippi
cies. "Most people have never don't use them." Unlike most com-
had a noise-free experience, mercially available recordings,
which consider the equivalent of
I Hempton's Earth Sounds (Peter
looking at the Milky Way once Roberts Productions) is pure,
you've gotten away from the am- unedited nature.
bient light of the city," he says. —
The series a blend of science
Hempton has discovered only and poetry— bears the recommen-
20 noiseless sites in the entire dation of the American Museum
state of Washington. Even nation- of Natural History and includes
al parks, he points out, offer only such titles as "Cedar Creek" and
the illusion of quiet refuge. Chain "Tennessee Nightwalk."
saws roar. Trucks gun their en- Hempton has planned his pur-
gines. Jets pass overhead. All suit of the global dawn chorus to
this noise hinders Hempton's ef- progress from geologically
forts and need intrude for only a young landscapes to mature
moment to ruin a recording. ones, from simple to complex eco-
Predawn air carries sound amaz- systems. His itinerary: Hawaii, Aus-
ingly well, and Hempton listens tralia, Sri Lanka, Africa's Serengeti
with. the ear of an animal, Once, Plain, the southern coast of
standing on a ridge overlooking France, and the Amazon basin. At
a valley, he heard, one by one, each site, he'll spend ten days to
the major streams and the 18 to two weeks making a four-minute
20 smaller ones that fed the lake recording. The 24-minute length
far below. "I actually heard the of "Dawn Chorus" will represent
sound signature of the entire val- a 24-hour day.
ley," he says. "But as soon as the Hempton would like to follow
sun is up and the air starts mix- up with a less artificial version of
ing, you might not hear even one "Dawn Chorus." Instead of one per-
of the streams." son following the dawn over many
When scouting for potential re- months, he envisions ringing the
cording sites, Hempton first uses globe with a network of recorders
his eyes, scanning the forest to capture the wave of sound gen-
from ground cover to canopy. "I erated by the planet's rotation.
look for a contrast in vegetation —
John GrossmannOO
 ARTS
THINGS TO COME:
Aliensand robots invade Hollywood-
Moviemakers held hostage
1977 [he critical and mega-
Inbox office success of Close En-
counters of the Third Kind and
Star Wars zapped science fiction
with sudden respect. In its new
age of high-budget, high-tech spe-
cial effects, the genre, along with
fantasy and horror films, has com-
Just when you manded 25 to 35 percent of tick-
thought it et sales.And in the coming
was safe to go months, robots, extraterrestrials,
back to MIT: and eventually even cloned dino-
Hardware's Mark saurs will frighten and bemuse au-
13 isn't the diences as a plethora of
ideal little helper fiction, fantasy, and horror
you'd expect a make their way to local theaters.
robot to be. But it The season includes the pre-
fall
is one of the mieres of Stephen King's Grave-
cast of characters yard Shift, based on the short sto-
in this fall's ry in King's Night Shift, and Night
of the Living Dead, George A. Rom-
ero's new version of his 1 968 flesh-
eating zombie classic. In the se-
quel to The NeverEnding Story,
Bastian returns to once again
save the land of Fantasia. Disney
is re-releasing the audiovisual
masterpiece, Fantasia. And Adri-
an Lyne (Fatal Attraction)
ed Jacob's Ladder, a plausible sei-
ence-fiction drama about a Viet- grammed to kill humans on sight.
nam veteran who suffers from Billed as a "high-tech action ad-
hallucinations, a result of covert venture with a provocative psycho-
medical experiments conducted logical twist," Eve of Destruction
during the war. stars Gregory Hines as an anti-
In December, Johnny Depp terrorist counterinsurgency expert
graces the screen as a man-ma- and Renee Soutendijk (Spetters,
chine in Edward Scissorhands, di- The Fourth Man) as Eve Simmons,
rected by Batman's Tim Burton. who creates a robot in her own like-
Awakenings, starring Robert De ness. Damaged during testing
Niro and Robin Williams, is gen- and "seething with Simmons' re-
erally viewed as a science-fiction pressed sexual fantasies and child-
film, although its story is based on hood pain," the robotic Eve hits
science- controversial medical experiments the streets while set in destruct
films conducted during the Sixties. And mode. This could be messy; the
robot is actually a nuclear bomb.
Like robots, aliens have been
portrayed as everything from
warm, highly intelligent, some-
times naive beings to selfish, evil
machines. The current trend
leans toward the latter. / Come in
Peace stars Dolph Lundgren as
a maverick detective who expe-
riences an alien encounter of "the
most deadly kind." The Ambu-
lance follows in the Communion
vein: Eric Roberts and James
Earl Jones discover a band of
aliens collecting body parts.
And who's responsible for
such flicks? Could it be.. .Satan?
Well, maybe — at least for two
films.Gate 2 returns to the back-
yard where suburbanites original-
ly discovered the portal to hell.
And the young hero in Highway
to Hell literally goes to hell to res-
cue his girlfriend.
All this, however, is just the be-
ginning. Filmmakers are involved
the Predator returns in a sequel in various stages of countless pro-
to the 1 987 blockbuster, this time jects. Most Steven
notably,
starring Danny Glover. Predator Spielberg is back at the story-
2's mission: Save Los Angeles. board with Jurassic Park, based
an urban jungle where the Pred- on Michael Crichton's new novel
ator has gone to "hunt game." about the cloning of dinosaurs;
Such hits as The Terminator Sylvester Stallone is working on
and Robocop launched a new a movie set in the year 2047; and
breed of high-tech villains and he- sometime next year, Sean Con-
joes. This year's entries include nery will suit up for Highlander 2,
Robot Jox, directed by Re-Anima- to confront the forces of evil again
tor's Stuart Gordon, Eve of De- which should be interesting,
struction, and Hardware, which since Connery's character died in
direct- pits the cast against Mark 13, a the original. Oh, well, that's Hol-
self-repairing military weapon pro- lywood.—A.J. S. RaylOQ
 —

coruTifuuunn
PICTURE THIS:
Discovering your better half, shopping with a
conscience, and the trashing of NASA

It may be the most without interpreters.

productive business Well, that's how it

advantage since cor- goes when we try to

porate power break- talk toeach other.
fasts or the outdated Quadrant A's commu-
two-martini lunch. So nicate best with oth-
say some of the big- er A's and have no
gest companies in trouble with quadrant
America— IBM, Du B's. But A-B domi-
Pont, Coca-Cola. nants don't do well
They've seized what withC-D dominants.
sounds like a bit of Herrmann meas-
fuzzy New Age logic ures brain domi-
to get that "edge" in nance using, of
a fiercely competitive course, the Herr-
world market. mann Brain Domi-
Called Ihe Big Pic- nance Instrument
ture, it's the latest (HBDI), a latticework
way for a company to of word groupings
peer into a crystal and scales. You
ball, ensuring a write in your best/
bright financial fu- worst subjects, col-
ture. Take Binney & lege major, occupa-
Smith, the company that manufactures Crayola crayons. tion, and hobbies. Would you describe yourself as criti-
To make its standard pack of 64 crayons more hip and cal, analytical, artistic, spatial, or musical? What's your
sellable,it got the Big Picture: Replace some of the mul- strong suit? Problem solving, organizational or administra-
ed colors with brighter, bolder, and more vibrant colors. tive abilities? There are even pictures of the way you
Don't laugh. "That little substitution created two distinct might hold your pencil while filling out the Herrmann Par-
reasons why parents and kids would buy our crayons," ticipant Survey Form. If you hold your pencil without a tilt,
says Brad Drexler, media communications manager for your language center is left brain, which is most common.
Crayola. "Parents wanted the classic sixty-four for nostal- With the tilt, you're right brained.
gia; kids wanted to check out the new colors." Andy Satter, an associate of Herrmann's and president
You get the Big Picture if you've got a whole brain, of the New Jersey-based Marketing Partnership, works
says program developer Ned Herrmann. A physicist in- with companies looking for the big picture. He puts togeth-
spired by left-brain/right-brain researcher Roger Sperry er whole-brain teams. Using the HBDI he determines peo-
in the Sixties, Herrmann thought the left (analytical) and ple's brain dominances and helps differing dominances
right (intuitive) brain dichotomy didn't go far enough. Af- to communicate and create compatible thinking styles.
terdabbling with Paul Maclean's theory of a triune brain Satter's personal experience is that women tend to be
three brains in one: reptilian, limbic, neocortex more right-brain oriented, whereas men want just the
Herrmann saw his own big picture, a four-quadrant brain. facts. "Women build relationships better than men," says
Think of the brain as a circle and divide it into four quar- Satter. They're better at romancing a deal than men; but
ters: upper left (A): analytical, quantitative, and fact- when it comes to closing a sale, men are more successful.
based thinking styles; lower left (B): organized, detailed, What about the cliche that women are more emotional
and sequential; lower right (C): emotional, interpersonal, than men? "This is a very left-brain way of looking at a
kinesThetic: upoer ngnt (D): intuitive, holistic, and artistic. right-brain person." Satter says. "Being emotional really
Each of us has a dominant sector, Herrmann says, but means being more intuitive and nurturing as you interact
itgoes beyond that. We also speak in four different brain with the world, which is desirable in the corporate setting."
languages. Imagine a meeting of the UN General Assembly —STEVEN SCOTT SMITH
 —

coruTiruuunn

WHAT JANE FONDA

NEVER TOLD YOU
Some people seem des-
tined to be unfit. In fact,

some unfortunate souls are

actually allergic to exercise.
John Wade of Vancouver
General Hospital and Mat-
thew Liang and Albert L.
Sheffer of Harvard Medical
School in Boston studied
199 patients with such
symptoms as itching, hives,
swelling, and fainting spells.
All these patients, it turned
out, were suffering from
exercise-induced anaphy-
laxis (El A), a syndrome first
observed in 1969. Since
then a total of 500 cases a
year have been reported.
Jogging and aerobics were
the two activities that most
frequently led to symptoms.
Some of the study's
patients, however, came
down with EIA just by
walking to the store briskly.
The researchers found that
eating certain foods—
particularly shellfish, celery,
or —
cabbage a few hours
before exercising appears
to heighten the risk of
an EIA attack.
To avoid exercise allergy,
Sheffer fells his patients to BUILDING A BETTER damaged by injury, disease, satisfaction, says Gottlieb,
refrain from eating before PENIS or birth defects —
are en- comes from hooking the
exercising and to avoid abling doctors to fashion a —
pudendal nerve the groin
aspirin or Advil. He also Ten years ago women more functional, natural- nerve that carries erotic and
advises those prone to EIA who wanted to make the big looking, and neurologically other sensory messages
to "bring an adrenaline kit transsexual leap into sensitive phallus. from the genitalia to the
along, don't work out alone, manhood were frequently Drs. Lawrence Gottlieb brain— into the new trans-
and stop exercising at the disappointed. Their new and Laurence Levine from plant. As nerves in the arm
first sign of itching or phalluses, reconstructed us- the University of Chicago tissue die, the pudendal
faintness." — Steve Nadis ing muscle tissue, would are pioneers in a technique nerve extends inside the
atrophy due to a lack of called radial forearm dead nerve's sheath, grow-
Boys get more than 90 nervous stimulation. flap surgery in which skin ing at a rate of about a
percent of the perfect 800 But resent advancements and tissue from the patient's millimeter a day. Sensation
scores on the mathematics in reconstructive and micro- forearm are removed and inthe new penis, Gottlieb
section of the Scholastic surgical techniques grafted to the groin. says, appears in about three
Aptitude Test. developed to repair penises The key to increased user to six monfhs.
34 OMNI
 Later a manually operat- answers." Some blame the HOT SHOTS
ed pump or semirigid Soviets, who diverted the
silicone rod is inserted to Volga River for agricultural Never play golf with a
make intercourse possible. irrigation in the Fifties, but man named Wilbert Cohen,
"Hooking up the nerve Fletcher says the Soviets especially if you notice him
has really been the critical are not responsible. "That reaching into an insulated
development in phallic program has ended," he sack to pull out a ball.
reconstruction," says Lev- says. "Besides, the amount Chances are his tee shot will
ine. "That increased sensitiv- of water diverted doesn't travel farther than yours."
ity has greatly improved account for the rise." Cohen, an inventor with a
patient satisfaction." The rising landlocked sea for thermodynamics,
flair

—Jack Mason could be a perfect model maintains that a heated golf

of what may happen if the ballreduces the air
THE CASPIAN WILL predicted greenhouse resistance around it in flight
RISE AGAIN effect occurs. Fletcher will and will therefore travel

spend part of the next three farther.To take advantage Wilbert Cohen's hot idea: A golf
The citizens of the cities years studying the problem of this, his company, ball that goes places.
of Astrakhan, Makhachkala, aboard a Soviet research Advanced Golf Concepts of
and Baku are keeping The joint U.S.-Soviet
vessel. Tarrytown, New York, now "There are limits to credibili-
watch on the Caspian Sea. program will focus on makes a cylindrical home- he says. "If said balls
ty," I

The Caspian's water level coastal inlets,eroding bluffs, heating unit called Thermal heated to one hundred and
has risen five feet since and barrier islands to Distance that electrically twenty-five degrees would
1978; if it rises another five understand the effects of warms golf balls to their very travel twenty percent far-
feet by the turn of the rapid sea-level rise. cores, baking them at a ther, which is true, no one
century, it would spell di- "If it's real and the constant 106° to 125° F for at would believe me."
saster for more than 1 .5 computer models are right, least eight hours. Slow bak- With the number of rec-
million Soviets living along then we had better be ing is Cohen.
the key, says reational golfers expected
its shores. prepared for it," says "This [heating unit] can to reach 40 million by the
"The whole situation there Fletcher."The Caspian give a golfer a tremendous end of the century, Cohen
is a mystery, a giant ques- provides an opportunity to advantage, although can't I says he would be content
tion mark," says Charles observe in three years what help your game if you keep with amere 1 percent share
Fletcher, a geologist who is may be a drastic global slicing shots into the water," He plans to
of the market.
studying the Caspian Sea. situation within sixty." says Cohen. Depending on sellthe heating units and
"Nobody really has the — George Nobbe outdoor temperatures, heat- insulated sacks for $40 via
ed golf balls retain their mail order and eventually
warmth for 90 minutes to two through golf shops. The
hours. Three carried in. an United States Golfing Asso-
insulated sack should get ciation confirms Cohen's
you through a round. claims but isn't too sure how
Cohen's claims have cricket the heated balls are.
been confirmed by inde- Existing rules bar players
pendent studies at the from heating balls during
National Testing Laborato- play, but they don't say
ries in Long Island City, New anything about preheating.
York,where researchers —George Nobbe
recorded the rebound char-
heated and
acteristics of At birth the skeletons of girls
unhealed golf balls. The are slightly more mature
higher their temperature, the than boys Some studies
'.

greater the rebound, Cohen find newborn girls are

says, He claims no more slightly more responsive to
Hip deep in it: The Soviet Union may feel the effects of sea-level rise than 8 percent improvement touch, and infant boys
before the predicted greenhouse effect actually appears. for marketing reasons: spend more time awake.
 a —

coruTinjuunn

OH SO SWEET THE utes i-:ler the volunteers VV-igslyr. with the primary
HUNGER selecied lunch from a buffet goal to develop a rose that
and were asked to eat until can pass its new color to
It's a standard line in comfortably full. future generations. The
nutritionally correct child Most of the volunteers ate company hopes to be
rearing: "No sweets before about as much after selling blue roses by 1993.

supper — they'll ruin
appetite." Well, science has
finally taken that statement
apart, and it turns out that
it's only partially true.
Actually, according to food
scientist Judith Rodin of
Yale University in Mew
Haven, Connecticut, the de-
gree to which one's appetite
is spoiled may depend on
the kind of sweet one spoils
your drinking the aspartame- Calgene scientists are
sweetened lemonade as also experimenting with
they did after drinking plain ways to grow longer-lasting
water. After drinking the flowers by using a genetic
glucose-sweetened lemon- technique to block the
ade, they ate about 15 to 20 production of ethylene, the
percent less than their substance that makes flow-
comrades. Those who drank ers wilt so rapidly.
lemonade sweetened with — George Nobbe
fructose ate a whopping 20
to 40 percent fewer calories. SHUTTLE DUMPSTER
Is Rodin recommending

it with. that dieters eat fructose- BLUE ROSE OF Who takes out the trash
Rodin's subjects were 24 sweetened snacks while AUSTRALIA on the space shuttle? Until
men and women aged growing kids who need their now, no one. But once the
twenty-two to fifty. She calories switch to aspar- It seems appropriate that shuttle begins flying extend-
asked each of them to drink tame? Not yet. "V\fe haven't in Australia, a land of exotic ed-duration missions,
about a pint of one of four ye! e'Siablished whether or flora and fauna, biotechnolo- astrogarbage and its- —
liquids: plain water; or not this works over the long gists are on the trail of a sort accompanying odors
lemonade sweetened with term," she says. "And that of botanical Holy Grail — could be spilling out all over
either aspartame, plain is the sixty-four-thousand- way to produce the much- the place.
sugar (glucose), or fruit sug- dollar question." sought-after blue rose. Enter the Space Age
ar (fructose). Forty min- — Bill Lawren Scientists at Calgene trash compactor, a 48-
Pacific, an Australian affili- pound unit small enough to
ate ot Calgene, Inc., of fit inside a.shuttle's
Davis, California, believe mid-deck iocker. NASA's
they are close to purifying trash masher, cranked
an enzyme that produces by hand, features a special
blue pigment in many bag with its own activated
tlowers but is mysteriously charcoal filter.
absent in roses. Calgene Recently J. B. Thomas, a
CFO Dan Wagster says the NASA technical monitor for
gene that codes a flower's the project, and his col-
color can be cloned and leagues put the device to a
inserted into the cell tissue stringent test by dumping
of rose bushes to produce a cat food into it. "We tested it

deep, royal blue rose. over a week or two at a

The process must first be time," says Thomas. "I kept
tested on other plant one of them right next to
models, explains Wagster. my desk." He reports that
The petunia plant, which even rotting cat food odors
produces mostly white were stalemated.
or pink petals, will be the —
Devera Pine
test subject.
It will take some time to Women's top fear: Dead
test the validity of all this bodies. Men's top fear:
genetic tinkering, says Failure.
conjTiruuunn

Africa; the environment; and

family benefits.
In the "Snacks" category,
Borden Inc., maker of
Cheez Doodles and Cracker
Jacks, receives a low rating
in contributions to charity:
The company gives 0.6
percent or less of its net
pretax earnings to charity. It
also has some investments
in South Africa, but

the guide mentions that the

company is making prog-
ress in this area. On the
other hand, Borden has no
military contracts, no
invovsment with nuclear
power, and scores high in
women and minority ad-
vancement (at least two
women and two minority
Playing the dating gnnie. Ostrich sggsr.SK. ro~ov;r.ea h' '.heir size /.ire: prah's'ori:: s/tes throughout members are on its board of

the Middle East and Africa. Now, fragments left behind may hold clues to the past. directors or are among the
top officers). The guide also
EGG TIMERS and artifacts that
sils SHOPPING FOR A reveals that the company
appeared between 10,000 BETTER WORLD does no animal testing.
Stone Age people prized and 200,000 years ago. Can shopping with the
ostrich eggs. Not only did Ostrich eggshells are Do you want to know guide really make a
ihe big yolks yield delicious good geological timekeep- which companies do the difference? In some cases it
meals, but the shells made ersbecause they disinte- most to reduce air pollution already has: "Ben and
first-rate canteens. grate very slowly, preserving or hire women and minority Jerry's did not do well in the
Today archaeologists val- a ratio of amino acids in groups? Simply refer to rating for the promotion of
ue those eggshells as much the shell Researchers
itself. Shopping for a Better \nvrid. women," says Leslie Gott-
as their ancestors did but have now developed a A Quick and Easy Guide to lieb, director of communica-
fora different reason. These dating method to measure Socially Responsible Super- tions for the CEP. "The
eggshells may provide the ratio between the amino market Shopping. company is now conducting
important clues in archaeolo- acids and arrive at a date-. The shopping guide lets a search for women on the
gy's dating game, a game for when the egg was laid. consumers compare how board. Johnson and
that is fraught with holes. Finding ostrich eggshells various manufacturers rate —
Johnson a highly rated
Popular radiocarbon dating in archaeological layers on social and environmental —
company has added a
can be used only if arti- will help date nearby issues. The pocket-size number of minorities in top
facts are less than 50,000 artifacts, says Edgar Hare, a book, published by the positions. We hope that
years old. Potassium-argon geochemist who helped Council on Economic Priori- the guide was a factor in

dating, the next truly develop the procedure. ties, rates manufacturers that." The guide is available
reliable dating system, starts Hare says the dating tech- and companies in 1 1 dif- CEP (call 1-800-
from the
at200,000 years ago, and nique should also work ferent areas: gifts to charity; UCANHELP) or in book-
dates only inorganic re- .viti South American rhea women's advancement; stores in a volume published
mains. This leaves a void of eggs, which could very well minority advancement; mili- by Ballantine Books.
150,000 years between help crack the mystery of tary contracts; animal —
Devera Pine
the two systems. Now it when humans arrived in the iesting; disclosure of infor-
seems that ostrich eggshells New World. mation; community out- Women ask more questions
can be used to date fos- —Gregory T Pope reach; nuclear power; South than men.
coruTiruuunn
TRANSSEXUAL FROGS
While many humans go to
great lengths to have their
gender reassigned, at least
one type of frog— the
African reed frog {Hyperoli-
us viridiflavus ommatostic-
tus) — switches from female
tomale all on its own.
An organic version of a
sex-change operation came
to light when biologists
Ufmar Grafe and Eduard
Linsenmairwere observing
the behavior of African reed
frogs in a terrarium at the
University of Wurzburg in
West Germany.
One day they noticed a
female fighting with a pair of
—
males rare behavior for
this species, Grafe says, be-
cause "females don't fight."
Over the next few months,
seven of the females
developed testicular nod-
ules and four of those seven
fertilized theeggs of other
females, producing perfect-
ly normal reed frogs.
To see if reed frogs
reassign their gender in the
Sne's got ? a;! Fs^aic 'ved irogs o
40 OMNI
wild. Grafe, now at Cornell
University, spent three
months in Zimbabwe without
seeing any evidence of sex
changes. But, he says, "it's
hard to imagine any animal
doing this in the laboratory
and not in the field. We just
have to keep looking."
Why do reed frogs
change sex? One possible
reason: When members of
one sex are in short supply,
some of the other sex will
switch over. "The evolution-
ary drive," Grafe says,
always in the direction of
mating." — Bill- Lawren
Men are more sexually
jealous than women, more
worried about possible
infidelity. If a man catches
his wife having sex with
another man, it is more HKeiy
to lead to divorce than if his
wife catches him with
another woman. But if a wife
discovers her husband
diverting money to another
woman, she is more
likely to initiate
divorce.
"is
Snap, crochit. pop: Car. clangcrz iigi--n;i:g spikes be dispelled
harmlessly? Ask Florida-based inventor Bruce Kaiser.
FOOLING LIGHTNING
Old Ben Franklin, who
almost incinerated himself
establishing the electrical
nature of lightning, would be
pleased with the most
recent advance in lightning-
rod technology — a collec-
tion of2,000 very thin steel
wires sprouting from Ihe end
of a hollow tube. While it may
look like a metallic feather
duster, the device patented
by two Florida inventors is
quantum leap forward in
keeping lightning at bay.
Bruce Kaiser of the
Lightr ng tv aster Corpora-
tion in Brooksville explains
that the traditional lightning
rod, with only one point, is
not terribly efficient at
dissipating the static elec-
tricitycharge that builds up
before lightning strikes. In
device can become
fact, the
saturated with electricity
and has at times actually
attracted lightning to it.
Their invention, says
Kaiser, is far less risky
because the "feather dust-
er" functions like 2,000
miniature lightning rods that,
in effect, stop lightning from
striking. Moments before
lightning hits, strayelecncal
charges build up on the
ground, giving lightning a
"target" to aim for, But the
new device, says Kaiser,
"bleeds off the ground
charge, maintaining it at a
value below that needed to
a trigger a lightning slrike,
reducing the likelihood of
the strike occurring in the
first place."
That's comforting to
know, considering that
atmospheric scientists say
that at any given moment
there are 1.800 active
o'octrical storms around the
world, producing 2 million
cloud-to-ground strikes on
any given day.
"All it takes is one bolt to
ruin your whole day," as
Kaiser points out.
—George Nob be
 WHY
CANT A MAN
BE MORE
LIKE A WOMAN.
AND
VICE VERSA
Male and female brains aren't the same.
Does this mean that sexual
differences are biologically determined?

them shootinq victims. D.

's sludv ii

„„j the first study of

Ihe human corpus i

scientists thought showing a possible

about sex differences in the anatomical basis for sexual

came a "branded" woman. Overnight
the popular press trumpeted that sci-
ence had determined that one sex's
brainpower was superior to the other's
(although there was considerable con-
fusion about which sex that was). "I'd
say the paper .really hurt my career as
opposed lo enhancing it," comments
De Lacoste, now at Yale Medical
School. At meetings she was known be-
fore she was introduced, based solely
on that paper, and not always favor-
ably. "It generated quite a stir and was I ature regulation and appetite to sex
very young. It made me an 'infamous'
neuroscientist."
De Lacoste had not merely entered
a research but strode into a mine
field of
field ofcontentious debate. "That stuff
ishokey," says Anne Faustc-Sterling, a
Brown University biologist and promi-
nent critic of the brain research. "The
evidence that there are differences is
so fragmentary and so weak, it ought
[o stop there." Critics fear that simply
by publishing their data, these neuro-
scientists may have handed society a
means to justify sexual discrimination.
"I was giving a seminar at an East-
ern university," recalls De Lacoste, "and
this man stood up and said, 'How dare
you do work in this area when the poli-
tics aresuch?'" Yet each time the de-
bate seemed nearly suppressed, anoth-
er study would appear indicating that
differences may not stop at the neck
but reach into the brain itselt, affecting
how the average man and woman
think. Brain differences, in fact, may
plain some — not — of the differences
all
featured in the disputations about
which sex is better at what.
—
Current theory and battleground
propounds that boys seem to excel in
math and computational skills, where-
as, girls are superior in language, spo-
ken and 'written. Motor coordination
tests give women the edge in execut-
ing fine linger and hand movements,
and in overall agility. But men tend
have faster reaction times. Male suprem-
acy appears greatest in tasks involving
spatial visualization —
the ability to see,
manipulate, and compute the position
of a real or abstract figure in the
mind's eye,
Although the typical cognitive profile
of women may be different from that of
men, there is a huge overlap. Many wom-
en do better than men on some spatial
tests, and vice versa. "In large groups,
ifyou look at the mean score or the ten-
dency, that's where you see the differ-
ence," says Sandra Witelson, professor
ol psychiatry at McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario. "Bui this doesn't
mean that you know the cognitive
skills of an individual." That is, you can't
predict sexwise who will do better on
real-life tasks such as running a com-
pany or an experiment. Still, when men
and women perform equally on a test
in a lab environment, there are indica-
44 OMNI
— —
tions that Iheir brains go about
different ways.
In the Jast decade neurobiologtsts
have reported structural differences in
at least two regions of the human
brain, One is the corpus callosum, the
mind's big "telephone" cable, connect-
ing as does hundreds of millions of
it
neurons between the two hemispheres.
The other is the hypothalamus, the mas-
ter controller for the integration of
—
basic behavioral patterns from temper-
drives —
involving brain and endocrine
functions. Neuroendocrine research al-
so strongly indicates that nervous sys-
tem differences begin as sex hormones
bathe the developing fetus in the
womb. Hormonal differences continuing
throughout childhood- -and perhaps
even through adult life- -av'ect brain ac-
tivity and guide performance. Other stud-
ies suggest that men and women may
process the same information different-
QDifferences
in language processing
women suggest
something more giobal
women recruit
areas of the brain that enable
ex- them to use
more strategies than
ly and yet come to the same or similar
conclusions. Nonetheless with every sig-
nificant new finding comes the research-
er's caveat: "No one knows for sure
to what this means in terms of behavior,
but I think...."
CORPUS CALLOSUM: LEFT
RIGHT BRAIN
In her pioneering research De La-
coste studied the splenium. Shaped
like a light bulb, the splenium, which
composes the back fifth of the corpus
callosum, is a pathway connecting the
visual areas of both hemispheres as
well as associational areas that serve
complex cognitive functions. She dis-
covered that the spleniunf s surface ar-
ea and width were greater in women
in than men, relative to brain weight. She
speculated that the larger splenium prob-
ably meant women and men have dif-
ferent interhemispheric connections.
De Lacoste's findings are in line
.witha prominent theory that goes
back at least to the famous "split-
brain" work of Nobel laureate Roger
Sperry and still dominates thinking on
it in brain '
hit : i
1
'
" Mah !
i nns -with few-
er connections across the corpus cal-
losum — are more lateralized than
those of females. This increased later-
alization,so the theory goes, allows for
greater right-brain performance—
visuespatial skills- Women, with their the-
oretically increased d/' lateralization, ex-
cel at verbal skills because, with more
cross-communication, they have de-
many creased focus on the right hemisphere.
Even before De Lacoste started gath-
ering brains from the Dallas morgue,
Witelson paiienlly cotocled data for a
ten-year study correlating people's
hand preference— right- or left-hand-
ed—with anatomical measurements in
Hand preference is a be-
their brains.
havioral index of, or "window" into, the
wiring of the brain. Witelson figured she
would find a structural difference be-
tween left- and right-handers, since
they have differing patterns of brain later-
alization.Among right-handers, the left
side of the brain controls language and
motor skills, and the right side controls
spatial perception. Among left-handers,
there is more bilateral representation of
these functions. Also, in psychological
tests left-handers appear to have more
in bilateral function. Since the corpus cal-
losum is the great communicator be-
—that tween hemispheres. Witelson thought
she might see the differences there.
Running into the usual problem
how to do behavioral anatomy in living
—
humans she devised an unusual so-
lution. Cancer patients who were seri-
men3 ously and wanted to make a contri-
ill
bution to science were asked to partic-
ipate in a study. They were given
psych tests, and they agreed to donate
their brains to her lab when they died.
With the psychological tests, Witelson
determined whether each patient was
consistently right-, left-, or mixed-hand-
ed. By the end of ten years, she had
collected test data and brains from 50
people— 35 women and 15 men.
What she found after analyzing the
brains surprised her, She discovered
BRAIN,
that among men, the isthmus, a seg-
ment linking the mid-portions of the two
cortices, was larger in the left- or mixed-
handed men than in the right-handed
men. She had anticipated this. Howev-
er, she found there was no difference
among women in isthmus size based
on handedness. Furthermore the isth-
mus was larger in women across the
board. "I did not suspect there —
would be no reason to predict this dif- —
ference between men and women,"
Witelson says. "The idea was that the
callosum might be bigger for left- than
right-handers, not specifically for men
but for everyone."
The significance of a larger isthmus?
"One possibility is a greater total num-
ber of fibers," Witelson says, "or the fi-
bers could be thicker. It will take clos-
er studies to find the answers." A great-

er number of or thicker fibers could be
an anatomical basis for more commu-
nication between the hemispheres. "Re-
member a headline when our report
was published?" she muses, "subtle
SEX DIFFERENCES FOUND? It is 'subtle' in
the sense that is complex but not sub-
it
tle in the sense that it's more elusive,
harder to find, or smaller."
Witelson found the variation in isth-
mus size to be strongly related to
—
preference but only in her male sub-
jects.There was almost no correlation
with the handedness measure in wom-
en.' "The variation in women is not as-
sociated with handedness, and it is in
men. That means the neurobiological
substrate of handedness in women,
which obviously must exist, must be me-
diated by different brain structures
than it is in men. That's a big sex dif-
ference," says Witelson.
Although men and women do a lot
of things similarly, if not identically,
they may be doing them with different
parts of the brain. This could relate to
differences in verbal and spatial skills,
she thinks, because
they are controlled
by the temporal and parietal lobes of
the cortex, and these regions send
their fibers through the isthmus. "If one
part of a package is different, there
could be a domino effect. There must
be other parts that are different as
Do mean one
well." Witelson's findings
sex
tion
is better able to process informa-
than the other? "The key: Different
is different. It's so easy to fall into the
words better ot worse. What's better, an
apple or an orange?"
THE LANGUAGE MAKER
Cecile Naylor, a neuropsychologist at
The Bowman Gray School of Medicine
inWinston-Salem, North Carolina, stum-
bled upon dramatic sex differences al-
most accidentally as she was studying
people with learning disabilities. As
part of her study she recruited a con-
group of 30 men and 30 women "un-
trol
hindered" by neurological problems.
She gave them an oral spelling test
that required them to identify whether
a word was exactly four letters long. To
take the test, each person lay flat on a
table, wearing what Naylor describes as
"basically a revised motorcycle helmet."
The helmet contained devices that
ured blood flow through the cortex.
She found no essential difference
how well the men and women scored
on the spelling test. An analysis of
blood flow, however, showed sex differ-
ences in brain activity during the test.
In men the patterns of blood flow
showed that the most intense brain ac-
tivity seemed to occur "in a tight link-
age" between two areas known to be
involved in language and verbal com-
munication; Wernicke's area in the left
temporal lobe and Broca's area in the
left frontal lobe adjacent io the motor
46 OMNI
cortex region controlling muscles of the
face, jaw, tongue, and throat.
areas are connected by a thick band
of fibers. The standard model for lan-
guage holds that language making and
comprehension arise in Wernicke's ar-
ea and then travel via the pathway to
Broca's, where they call up the program
that causes the phrases to be spoken.
In women, though, she found no
hand such intense coupling between the two
areas. Instead Wernicke's was actively
engaged with two other areas, one be-
hind the left temporal lobe. Wer-
it in
nicke's was also linked to its "mirror" ar-
ea in the right temporal lobe. Without
further research, Naylor is
what these startling differences mean,
but she will speculate a little. "The ar-
ea behind Wernicke's lies between the
primary visual and auditory regions,"
she says, "so one might argue that wom-
en have an additional irru-!y:ng function"
during the language process. The ar-
^Some of
these early behaviors, such
as playing with
Lincoln Logs, may lead
changes in
cognitive function
might develop
better visual-spatial skills3
ea opposite Wernicke's in the right
hemisphere is involved in the emotion-
al comprehension and expression as-
pect of language. If this region
gaged in women, then
farfetched to think that during language
processes a typical woman brings a rich-
er, more expanded emotional compo-
nent into play than most men do.
In men, as language impulses move
toward speech, only Broca's area is en-
gaged. In women, Naylor found, "al-
most every area- of the cortex, left and
meas- right hemisphere, has some unique re-
lationship with Broca's during the task,
in as if there were many independent
things going on between Broca's and
lots of different regions." Is almost as
if a woman's brain is "ablaze" during lan-
guage processing? "Well," Naylor re-
sponds carefully, "it suggests some-
thingmore global— that women are re-
cruiting areas of the brain that enable
them to use more strategies than men."
. The male arrangement follows the
classical model of language function
"as a unit independent from the rest of
the brain," she says, adding that most
"
language-area studies have been made
The two with men. The classical model may be
classic for only about 50 percent of the
human population. Naylor's work may
also explain why, according to some
studies, women recover faster than men
from certain types of strokes attacking
the core language regions.
THE MASTER CONTROLLER
Sex diflerences have also been locat-
ed deep within the hypothalamus, the
small structure that orchestrates many
vital functions. In 1978 UCLA's Roger
Gorski (see Interview, page 70) discov-
ered what became known as the sexu-
loath to say ally dimorphic nucleus (SDN) in the pre-
optic area of the male rat. This area, lo-
cated in the front part of the hypothal-
amus and believed to help direct sex-
ual behavior, was five times larger in
males. Investigators began hunting for
a similar area in humans.
In 1985 Dick Swaab, a Dutch neuro-
scientist, reported that he had found
two areas in the human hypothalamus
that showed sex differences. One was
the superchiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a
group of neurons that acts as a built-in
clock, controlling circadian rhythms
and, in women, ovulation. Swaab saw
that inwomen the SCN has a more elon-
gated shape. "Because there's a differ-
to ence in shape, the nucleus can make
different contacts, and that way it
—you might have a different function," he
says. "But we haven't got a clue about
the difference in function at this point."
Swaab also looked at the preoptic ar-
group he believes
ea, pinpointing a cell
is similar to the one Gorski investigat-
ed Swaab found was twice as
in rats. it
large men and had about twice as
in
many neurons as the women's cell
group. And last year a team led by
Gorski reported a sex difference in two
regions of the human preoptic area.
is en- The UCLA scientists stopped short of
it is not describing the cell groups as analo-
gous to those of the rat. "We don't
know if either of these [Swaab's or
UCLA's] is the same cell group as the
rodent SDN, but they would be candi-
dates for it," says Melissa Hines, a neu-
roscientist then on Gorski's team.
Hines speculates that hormone regula-
tion might be a function of the cell
groups. They might also be involved in
male sexual behavior, although just
how, too, is still unknown.
Swaab noted in one rat study that the
it size of the SDN appears to be related
to the male rat's "libido." "For instance,
there's a correlationbetween the num-
ber of mounts and the size of the SDN.
The bigger the nucleus, the more the
mounts. Implications for men? Again un-
known. Scientists in this field exercise
caution in making rat-to-man leaps. In
their sexual behavior humans have over-
come, to a greater degree than rats at
least, the tyranny of their hormones. Yet
 n " 1

"Thm is nothing wrong with

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Swaab's and Gorski s research has en-
couraged animal investigators by pro-
human brain
viding "evidence that the
has sex differences very much like
those seen in rats and lower animals,"
says Bruce McEwen, a leading Rock-
eleliei Univorsiiy neurosceniis!.
SEA OF LOVE
Based on animal models scientists
are increasingly convinced, further-
more, that prenatal hormone exposure
in humans may govern some brain anato-
my and behavioral a jfpr.S nces between
the 'sexes. For the last several years,
Hines has conducted human studies to
test this idea. 1975 she began her
In
graduate work on physical aggression
and its causes. But her interest soon
turned from the problem of aggression
to the question of hormonal influence on
behavioral development.
Now on the UCLA faculty, Hines has
studied two special groups: women
whose mothers took diethylstilbestrol
(DES), an estrogen, or "female" hor-
mone, during pregnancy; and girls who
had congenital adrenal hyperplasia
(CAH), a genetic disorder resulting in
excessive production of androgens, or
"male" hormones. In animal studies
DES had been shown to masculinize fe-
male reproductive systems and behav-
ior. "We think of estrogen as a female
hormone. But during development, at
least in the rat, testosterone is convert-
estrogen] before
ed into eslradiol [an
itmasculinizes certain brain cells. By giv-
ing DES, you're mimicking what would
occur with testosterone," Hines says,
"So that's why DES masculinizes."
Hines wanted to know if DES might
masculinize human female brains. So
she gave dichotic listening tests to DES
women and their sisters who had not
been exposed to DES. In the tests, dif-
ferent wor'ds are presented simulta-
neously to each ear. Because of the
brain's circuitry, the word going in the
right ear is recorded by the left hemis-
phere, and the word going into the left
ear recorded by the right hemisphere.
"Because iheir oil hemisphere is dom-
inant in language, most people have
what is called a right-ear advantage,"
Hines explains. "They're better at rec-
ognizing the syllables from the right
ear." And there's a sex difference: Men
typically are more right eared than wom-
en, because, as the theory goes, wom-
en tend to be more bilateral. Hines
found that in the 25 DES women she
studied, there was a bigger right-ear ad-
vantage than in their unexposed sisters.
The women performed more like men,
suggesting a subtle masculinizing' from
the early hormone exposure.
More recently Hines and psycholo-
gist Sheri Berenbaum studied CAH
girls, ages two and a half to eight, to
see if their prenatal exposure to excess
androgens had masculinized their be-
48 OMNI
havior. The scientists created a play-
room with toys classified as female-
type toys; male-type toys, and neutral
toys. Then one by one the children
including CAH girls, their unaffected fe-
male cousins and sisters, and unaffect-
ed boys— were placed in the room and
observed. "We found that more often
than the other girls and. about as often
as the control boys, the androgenized"
girls played with cars, trucks, Lincoln
Logs, and other male-type toys, and
less with dolls," Hines says,
"I was guite surprised," she admits,
"because you don't think of there be-
ing a brain region governing toy pref-
erences." The result suggests that pre-
natal exposure to androgens helped cre-
ate a brain that thinks more like a typi-
cal male than a typical female brain. Bui
Hines says the research is still incom-
plete. "There may be other steps in the
pathway between the hormone and the
preference for the truck over the
QThe way the brain
develops anatomically, then
functionally, has a
large hormonal component.
One thing it develops
is sexual orientation. It's one
of many variations
within each genetic sex
I'm looking at that course
now. And of
these could be early behaviors, such as
playing with Lincoln Logs, that subse-
quently lead to changes in cognitive
function —
you might develop better vi-
sual-spatial skills."
Barbara Lippe, chief of pediatric en-
docrinology at UCLA Medical School,
is skeptical of suggestions, based on
studies of hormonally abnormal people,
that prenatal hormonal exposure has
masculinized or feminized brain func-
tion or behavior. '-"The problem is that
'abnormal' experiences in the womb are
more often than not coupled with ab-
normal hormonal levels postnatally, and
it's difficult to separate them out," she
says. CAH girls may also have unusual
genitalia that affect the way the child
treated. "So it's a difficult model
SEXUAL ORIENTATION
If early hormonal exposure can
shape your brain and behavior, can it
also explain sexual orientation who
turns you on? Could it answer the rid-
dle of why some people are homosex-
ual and-others heterosexual? Witelson
3— —
believes this may be a factor. In test-
ing this,she and her colleagues found
ihat a group of lesbians there were
in
nearly twice as many left-handers as in
the general population. A group of gay
men, too, showed a trend toward great-
er-than-average lefi-hande.dness.
"We don't think the increased left-
handedness can be explained by
learned or socially induced factors,"
she says. "In contrast, because lett-
handedness is well documented to be
related to a typical pattern of brain or-
ganization, we feel there must be a neu-
robiological factor to homosexuality."
Witelson suspects that in women
"higher levels of masculinizing hor-
mones in utero lead to the increased left-
handedness and the homosexual ori-
entation." In men, the process may
work a little differently. "We'd guess few-
er androgens in utero leads to in-
creased left-handedness and homosex-
doll. ual orientation." It doesn't mean,
though, that "every left-handed person
is homosexual or every homosexual left-
handed, but as a group there's an atyp-
ical pattern of cerebral dominance
[right brain] compared to the general
population." It does suggest, however,
that sexual orientation may develop dif-
ferently in men and women,
Shelton E. Hendricks, a University of
Nebraska psychologist who studies sex-
ual orientation, says Witelson's re-
search, while interesting, is weakened
by her choice of populations to com-
pare with the homosexual groups. She
used a general population collected by
another scientist in 1970 in. Britain to
compare with an Eighties homosexual
population in Canada. "The rate of left-
handedness varies with the population,"
Hendricks says, and factors such as
time, place, age, ethnicity,and cultur-
alpressures can affect that rale.
Witelson has also found evidence of
differencesin thinking patterns between
homosexual and heterosexual popula-
tions, suggesting that the differences be-
tween the two groups— on average
may extend beyond the issue ol what
turns them on. Last year Witelson's
group reported that in spatial tests, gay
men performed somewhat less well
than heterosexual men and better than
—
heterosexual women who typically do
less well on spatial tests than het-
erosexual men. In verbal tests, the gay
men again fell between the heterosex-
ual men and women. This month at the
Society for Neuroscience's meeting,
is Witelson and Cheryl McCormick will re-
to use." port how lesbians fared on the same spa-
tial and verbal tests.
"The difference in the pattern of
skills suggests something different in
the organ of thought, the brain," she
— says. She predicts that difference may
be found in the anatomy of the corpus
callosum. "Unfortunately, we don't
have MRIs of the brains of people we
CONTINUED ON PAGE 68
 DANCING ,...,;* '"'-,• 1
c-
DREAMTIME

elv hear myself think, they are

ting such a hullabaloo. Weaving
they laugh, Ihey gibber, they stamp their feet on the

PAINTINGS BY HEATHER COOPER

drinking their private brew since we parked in orbit, but most at the sky, saying, "The Great Spirit." Was he smirking? I <

How am supposed
I not tell. Now, through break"
-
~n? glimpses of him lounging int. ,„ ......
idone until the sha- behind a copy of Ga/a magazine, seemingly oblivious to the
. ;..,._ begin following the uproar. He is dressed for the part, in a grass-green caftan with
dream So am free to sit here and observe the whirling
paths. I a large rufous eye painted on the chest. As bodies gyrate be-
dance. fancy the shamans do not see me at all, this unpainted
I tween us, the eye appears to blink and then stare, blink and
"'"'in a stare. For a moment he lowers the magazine, and am I

tent by the gaze of two more eyes, blue to go with his sun-bl
bove my head, they exchange grins hair. At last hear a drum, sluggish and irregular, like the beat
I

_„. They are old, too old for carousing, of a laboring heart And now comes the jingling of
-
rine. Yet even this hammered rhythm does not m
'

i like driftwood. For simplicity, I think of

ns, yet among their tribes they go by many their steps. The shamans prance and shuffle, tw
s, sorcerers, magicians, wizards, healers, like ancient dolls gone haywire,
soothsayers, prophets. The catalog of superstitions is long. While this tumult fills my left ear, the voices of the ci
h the phoneplug, reciting ni '

cal number, nine graybeards and seven crones. In their great ce du res. Occasionally the barbs of reas
age, some plump and others withered, they seem to have "Do they have you wearing feathers yet, Connie?'' says the
rond gender into captain. He and the copilots
Their cos-
twilight. [

is of male groans Irom the engineers, and a

n one of the copilots.
actor like our (

I gaze fi

they spin. Between their lurching torsos, the great rusty eye
~ '
1am Johnson's chest. "On this flight," I '
"

ire of anything."

.,,..., ^ .^unch. "Merely a

,,-.,. ground, it is an ordinary Night. The ship has I

World Indigenous Peoples Funr1 '--

facilitator,
''
—
an oiler of gears." !t is hard to see where he will find
> dry. "Then who is the leader?" asked, I —
gers the shamans plus Johnso.. ...... ,.,.....

iger against his belly, pointed the other to fly wherever our customers ask us to, as we would for a load
of joyriders or eco-artists. or officials wish- being older. The very creases in her uni- screens, which are occupied at the mo-
ing to see with their own eyes the ex- form and the rigidity of her spine pro- ment by Iceland.
panding deserts and dwindling forests. fess her devotion to duty, as if to say "It's not really so hard. Like playing

The countdown went off without a that she will uphold the claims of rea- an organ,"
hitch. The launch was routine. son while the rest of us screw around. "Never played a thing in me life but
Our orbit thus far has been as dull She clutches a notebook, runs a ball- harmonica."
as the windings on a ball of yarn. My point pen down a checklist. I
a contrast knob. In the
toy with
screens fill with the customary oceans, As though rebuked by her diligence, right setting— in a desert, say, under a
the familiar continents. To those down the captain swivels back to the window, broiling —
sun he might look good. Big
below, a flight is a flight, a contract is where the sun is rising for the sixth or as he is, at least he would make some
a contract. So what if the money oiyhtri time since launch "Well, we'd bet- shade. "First time up?" ask. I

"First time in a ship," he answers.

comes from sophisticates who wish to ter earn our paychecks."
preserve the ways of savages? So I return to my station at the heart of want to ask how else he came up,
I

what if the passengers wear bells on the whirlpool. ifnot in a ship. Then remember the sto- I

their wrists and antlers on their skulls? ries about magical flight and let it

So what the navigator must guide her

if A spell of quiet. The drums and tambou- pass. He leans over me, smelling of
ship according to the dictates of rines are still. The shamans are resting, mint, and the eye on his chest comes

dreams, while wizards seek to heal the a few in seats, most on the floor, either even with my face. say, "How did you I

earth with dance and song? squatting like gossipers at a campfire meet your friends?"
To keep from going gaga, slip be- I
or sitting cross-legged like yogis. A kneel- "What, this lot?" He jerks a thumb at
tween a bear and a wolf in the circle of ing crone draws a landscape in the the quiet shamans. "By accident, the
dancers and make my way forward to aisle,using colored sand from pouch- way tumble into everything, was col-
I
I

the cockpit. It is like swimming from a es at her waist. An old gentleman in a lecting abo songs for me thesis, when
whirlpool into a calm lagoon: The rows turban stands on his head, the skirts of this bloke from the WIPF hired me as a

of switches, the phosphorescent guide. Wanted to visit the dawn of

screens, the precise murmurs of the pi- time. Wanted to witness the. dignity of
lots are reassuring. My face must an- primal peoples.. He talked like that! Fun-
nounce my relief, because Jane ny Pom, he was. Well, did a bang-up I

Riggs, the copilot whom know slightly job. Pretty soon was guiding other
I

^Supposedly
I

from previous runs, turns to me and spiffs into the boonies. Oases in the

asks, "Pretty wildback there, Connie?" the spry old coots can visit Sahara, huts on the Amazon, temples
"Bedlam," answer. In the Himalayas. Anywhere the old-
I

the underworld time religion still bubbles up. Two

the screwiest bunch I've ever
"It's
hauled," says Captain Lopez. "Just as well as heaven, speak years ago dragged all these fellas out
1

look at them." The sound has been cut of the bush and sat them down for a
with animals, pass
on the cabin monitor, so the outlandish powwow, which' is where they cooked
figures wheel in silence on the over-
unharmed through fire, travel up the idea for this flight. And here am, I

head screen. outside their to referee."

"And have the feeling they're still "There must be a lot of squabbles,"
I

bodies, and raise the dead.^>

say, "with so many languages, so
warming up," say. I
I

The captain strokes his handlebar many queer religions."

mustache, about which he is exceed- "Oh, it's all the same religion."
ingly vain. "I don't see why they need "The same?" glance back along the
I

a ship," he says. "They should hop on aisle, where the sand painter still

their magic sticks and fly up here." his gown drooping to uncover scrawny broods over her artwork, the turbaned
"Or climb their ladders," says Jane. shanks. Stewards wheel around the ob- elder still balances on his head. Horns
"Or shinny up the rainbow," add. I stacles, bearing drinks. Their sensors and feathers show above the seats.
Magical flight is only one of the pow- have been severely tested by these un- "Sure," Graham concedes, "they
ers attributed to the shamans in our brief- ruly passengers, and so have their irans- dress bloody strange. Look at me own
ing paper. Supposedly the spry old lation programs. The shamans' guttur- getup!" He plucks the blousy waist of

coots can visit the underworld as well al murmurs sound to my ears less like his caftan.The rufous eye turns Orien-
as heaven, dive to the depths of the rational speech than like the racket of tal from the stretching. "But don't
ocean, speak with animals, pass un- nature. But the stewards take orders in judge by costumes. Underneath, we're
harmed through fire, travel outside all these yabbering languages, blithely allthe same forked animals. And be-
their bodies, stab themselves without noting dietary preferences that would neath the rigmarole, it's all one religion."
bleeding, cure all manner of sickness, make human servants weep. "Do you believe in it? The magical
and raise the dead. The one human servant seems to flights''The talking with spirits? The
"Maybe they can put me in touch have precious little to do. After discard- sorcery?"
with my dear departed wife," the cap- ing his magazine, Graham Johnson "I believe they believe it."

tain muses. cleans his nails with a penknife, picks "That's not what asked." I

lint from his grassy sleeves, stretches, "I heard what you asked, and ft's
"Why not have them bring her
back?" says Jane. and yawns. The eye on the front of his what me dear departed mum called a
The captain frowns. "She wasn't caftan droops. At length he rises from rude question."
that dear." the seat and ambles over to my con- I blush, feeling stupid. "So it is. I'm

All this while, the other copilot, a train- sole, his body moving with a horsey sorry."

ee named Sonya Mirek, never looks up weight, his ruddy face cracked by a "No need. Me hide's as thick as a kan-

from her instruments, never offers a smile. "All 'serene there, mate?" he garoo's."
word. custard-skinned, with lank
Tall, says to me, his Aussie accent as thick My jaw locks. fiddle with dials I I

mousy hair cut ruler straight across fore- "as his neck. stare at my screens.
head and neck, she must be twenty- "Smooth sailing," reply. I
"Now don't you go steamy," he
one or so, half a dozen years younger "Must be a frazzle, keeping track of says. "Here, now. Listen."
than yet she gives the impression of
I, all those gizmos." He nods at my keep my back to him,
1 until I hear

56 OMNI
the music. Then turn, unable to resist,
I ble with his rubbery mime's face, a I
can imagine him "ordling the wings of
and his grin is as wide as the silver globe in his lap. Now and again one of his mustache. "But you punch it in, Con-
case of the harmonica. His cheeks, the shamans crouches beside him and nie, and we'll fly it."
puff, his blue eyes narrow to larky slits- points with a horny nail at some geo- Ibegin keying the coordinates. The
The shamans rise once more and be- graphical feature. The others jabber in shamans crowd closer. They smell of in-
gin to shuffle. response, nodding their grizzled cense, fur, sweat, and greasepaint. In
heads. After a ivhile ".hey break their cir- their st-lness I
hear fie wheeze of shriv-
Shutters descend over the windows to cleand clump beside my console. A ven- eled lungs, tingle of bells, clack of brace-
give us our make-believe night, and erable witch doctor in a cast-iron hel- lets. Graham signs to them what .am I

eight hours later they snick open to met pushes Graham toward me. doing. A graybeard in a bowler hat star-
give us dawn. Only the burble of "They're spooked by your hair." says tlesme by asking in proper English,
voices from ground control and the Graham, cradling the globe like a mel- "Are we to understand, missy, that by
snores of shamans, break my sleep. on. "They say it's frozen fire." means of these devices you converse
I
rarely dream. A! least, on waking. His own hair, a straw-colored heap, with the spirits?"
I rarely recall having dreamed. This obliv- has not yet seen a comb today, "Tell His bare black chest may be
ion is one of life's small mercies, for me another one," I say. streaked with lic'itning flashes in yellow
which I am thankful. The daylight is con- "They're also spooked by your paint and his'face may be tatlooed
fusing enough without dragging in electronics." with scars and the diap datoo trousers
more trouble from the darkness. Out of "That can believe." What a dizzy-
I from a tuxedo may flap about his legs,
the ship's artificial darkness wake, how-
I ing leap it must be, from grass huts in but his pronunciation is impeccably Brit-
ever, with the shreds of a dream -stick- the bush to our ship hurtling through ish. I goggle up at him.
ing in my throat: a hooked claw, a ba- space. "So where do they want to go?" To cover my surprise, Graham says,
by, a knife. sit up in fear, coughing.
I I "All business, eh? Right-o, then, "Allow me to introduce Luke Easlerday,
slither from my pouch, check the look here. Their dreams have shown from Shark Bay, Western Australia." As
screens, do fifteen minutes of aerobics. ihem a path." He traces an arc on the the old man bows, the squirrel tails dan-
The lump in my throat dissolves. When globe from the Ross Ice Shelf in Ant- gling from the brim of his bowler swing
I go aft for my shower, the engineers arctica, over Tasmania, New Guinea, forward. "LuKe noicls a degree in clas-
call me Hawk Soa's and chock my shoul- the Philippines, and China, to the high- sics from Cambridge," Graham adds.
der blades for the sprouts of wings, my lands of Mongolia. "He's translating Ovid into his aborigi-
hair for snakes. "Where after Mongolia?" ask. I nal tongue."
By the time return, the shamans
I
"Won'tknow until one of 'em pops in- Regaining my own tongue, I say,
have gathered in a ring to discuss fo trance." "This really has nothing to do with
(heir own dreams. Graham Johnson hun- 1 relay this to the cockpit. "Bizarre," These are just maps, electronic
spirits.

kers among them, translating their bab- Captain Lopez sighs into my earphone. images."
 "Ah, yes, from the computer gods," stars, the sun and moon, the earth and "Out of whack. Busied up. Sick."
the old man observes. its critters, the trees, the grass, the cannot argue with that. On my
I

Graham says, "Luke owns the first moose ajid mosquitoes." screens the earth looks perfectly nale,
path, so he'll do the singing." "And us?" a blue and sandy ball iced with
We get the okay from ground and fly "Us, too. We climbed out of a hole clouds. But have flown with too many
I

the arc from Ross lo Mongolia. The oth-
ers dance, but Luke Easterday squats
beside me, watching the earth pass on
my screens. Every now and again he
grunts, as though recognizing some
landmark. The grunt is followed by a min-
ute or two of moaning, without any
rhythm or melody can decipher. Then
more watching, a grunt, a round of moan-
in the ground, beat our feet on the
brand-new earth, and started singing.
The very same ditties my old fellas are
singing still." All of this and mo.re is in
the briefing paper. But think it wiH
sound less like raving nonsense if re-
told in Graham's words. look up at him'
I across the green expanse ol his caitaa
past the giant eye. "So when Luke Eas-
eco-scientisls, who trace from the sky
the planet's decay, lo be deceived by
this image of health.
I The engineer;- cannot resist teasing me
about my drop of Sioux blood. They pre-
I tend to see a few black strands in my
pale hair, a tinge of cinnamon in my va-
nilla skin, a hint of Asia in my cheek-

ing-. To call it singing stretches that ieraay sings, he's telling how something bones. Their hands tarry on my shoul-
word beyond anything understand. I
down below was made? A mountain, ders. So avoid their compartment and
I

What does it mean? The hubbub of the say? A river?" spend my breaks up front with the pi-
.dancers and the old crooner's grave He pats my back, a light touch for a lots. The others work in shifts, four
manner keep me from asking. heavy hand. "Bingo." hours on, four off, but am on call 1

While we're above the Gobi Desert, "What's the point?" around the clock. Jane offers to spell
the Navaho woman slumps the to "The world grows old. A mountain for- me. "Spell her?" the captain mocks.
floor, twitches violently, looses a high- gets how to be a mountain. Rivers tum- "Why, navigators are like firemen.
pitched cry. The shamans bend over ble out of their beds. Dirt climbs into the They only work in emergencies. Ninety
her, plucking their chins. air. Things get confused." percent of the time they loaf."
A stroke, I think, reaching for the The shamans themselves loaf all the
alarm, but Graham seizes my wrist. "Not fourth day. They play cards, finger
to worry," he says. "Just a visionary their beads. They squat in the aisle and
trance. They all have 'em. Like epilep- chew nuts, scattering nulls to crunch be-
tics, except they're in control." neath the wheels of the stewards.
With an effort, I shut the stricken wom- ^While we're They mend their costumes, which
an from my sight. Luke Easterday above the Gobi Desert, the have grown tattered from three days of
keeps moaning. Presently, the wizards dancing. Amid their gibberish, catch
chatter something to Graham, who an-
woman slumps to a word or two of English. Crooked
I

nounces, "We've got path number two." the floor, twitches violently, tines. Dream medicine. Eternal return.
We fly that second route, then a '

looses a high- Their bursts of laughter make my head

third, a fourth, each one revealed by an spin. When he is not huffing on his
entranced shaman, each with its own pitched The shamans
cry. harmonica, Graham spends the day
singer. don't understand a single
I bend over her, weaving a belt from brightly colored
note. They caper and shout, seeming threads. By afternoon the weaving has
plucking their chins. 9 grown so long that he removes one of
to gain energy by the hour. Long be-
fore the shutters come down for sleep, his sandals and loops the finished end
I am wrung out. of the belt around his big toe. It makes
a grotesque image; the hulking man,
"They're singing stories from the begin- the frail threads.
ning,"Graham tells me on our third day try to keep trio skop; cism out of my
I He has exchanged his caftan with its

in orbit, ""about how the earth was Voice. "The songs fix everything up?" inquisitive eye for a flame-colored da-
made." "The songs remind things of how shiki. His wayward hair is stuffed into a
I tilt him a wry look. "They know how they were to begin with, in the square white cotton hat. He gives no
"
the earth was made, do they 7 dreamtime when everything was fresh ssgn of realizing how preposterous he
"You'd be surprised what the old bug- and bright. Kind of like tuning a piano. looks.The whole lethargic day, he ig-
gers know." He looms over me, block- Putting the earth back in harmony." nores me and ignore him. I

ing out a wide chunk of the ceiling. "You say all this with a straight During one of my breaks the next
Again catch a whiff of spearmint. Is it
I morning, am in the cockpit, basking
I

liniment for those horsey muscles? The in the orderly rhythms, when his Aus-
voice rumbles up from his belly. "They sie drawl pours from the intercom;
don't tell the same stories the geophys- He grins. The teeth look stunningly "We've got a new path for you, mate!"
icists do, grant you. They wouldn't
I'll white in his sunburned face. "There you Jane rolls her eyes at me. The cap-
know a tectonic plate or a seismic dis- go again with your rude questions. Let's tain grumbles scout wild geese. Sonya
continuity it waltzed up and bit them
if just say me mind's open. don't know I Mirek, who refuses to acknowledge my
on the bum. Whal they talk about is cam- if they can mend the blooming earth. existence, her post, scowl-
sits rigidly at

el dung, iguana claws, coyote's But I've seen the old bastards do amaz- ing at her instruments. Does she fear
pranks, the polar bear's dreaming." ing things." that I
carry with me the germs of disor-
My own dreams stayed with me long- "Such as?" der from the shamans?
er today. Ragged images, as though "Just you wait. You'll see before this "Back into the lions' den," I say.
torn from the tissue of sleep; the knife shindy's over." No lions, but an elk, a wolf, eagles,
again, a baby's foot, a tepee, a wom- "I'll keep my eyes peeled." and bears flash by. leap between the I

an stirring a pot over a fire. "Do." He studies the monitor, strok- whirling dancers to reach my console.
"It's all dreaming, really," Graham ing his jaw. I hear the rasp of the day's Graham waits for me there, hugging :he
adds. whiskers. "Actually," he says, "the hard- plastic globe. I can scarcely hear him
"How's that?" I say. est, thing to oelieve is the: our sweet plan- above Ihe rattle ol amulets and thunder
"The world started in the dream- et's gone all crook." ofdrums and roar of leathery throats.
time, when the Creator thought up the "Crook?" "This is a powerful path!" he shouts.
58 OMNI
 —

PICTORIAL

Will the offspring of computer

and artist someday
rival the enigmatic beauty
of the Mona Lisa?

TRACING
THE MASTERS
STROKES
COMPUTER ART BY
LILLIAN SCHWARTZ

If Leonardo da Vinci were

alive today, would he forsake

canvas and brush for a
computer terminal? Look at the
tools he'd have. Wiih a PC,
images would break down into
infinitesimal pieces to be
viewed any way he wished. Colors
could be mixed into almost
infinitely subtle hues. (One comput-

er system can reproduce

15.78 million different colors.)
And screen resolution could
emulate the grit of canvas. With
the click of his mouse,
he could call up old sketches,
images, and forms all—
elementary tasks for a computer
says artist Lillian Schwartz.
Schwartz's traditional watercol-
ors, sculptures, and films
grace several museums, includ-
OF PICASSO AND PIXELS: WOULD THE ARTIST APPROVE? DID DA VINCI SEE HIMSELF WHEN HE LOOKED ATTHE MONA LISA?
ing the Museum of Modern Art
in (Mew York and the Grand
Palais Museum in Paris. In
1 968 Schwartz's artwork Prox-

ima Centauri was one of nine

pieces picked for the Museum
of Modern Art's epochal exhi-
bition "The Machine." Also on
display was a computer-gen-
erated nude. "When saw I

that," says Schwartz, "I prac-

tically went out of my head. It
excited me to see this new
expression: using symbols and
little pictures to make up the
larger picture." Later, in asso-
ciation with AT&T Bell Labs,
Schwartz me! Nobel laureate
 Arno Penzias and other note-
worthy scientists. All were inter-
ested in the visual capacities
ol the computer.- "I'd suggest
an idea," Schwartz says, "and
often they could write a pro-
gram for it. There were always
trade-offs, working in three di-
mensions with fewer colors or
working in two dimensions
with complete color control."
Schwartz is not bound to
any computer, since different
machines have different capa-
bilities. She works with any-
thing from an old IBM 360-50
to an AT&T Pixel computer,
good for 3-D modeling.
Several of the computer-gen-
erated images here such as
Kaleidoscope — four frames
from a video of the same
name (pages 64 and 65, bot-
tom)— and the Edo series
(pages 66 and 67, top) were
first "scanned" as data,
stored, then manipulated.
Schwartz superimposed her
version of a Modigliani nude on-
to a variation on Matisse's Dane-

PAINTINGS CAN BE EXPLORED WITHOUT ALTERING THE ORIGINAL, LOOKING AHEAD: THE ART WORLD'S EYES ARE ON SCHWARTZ.
era to provoke "a sense of joy
and fun with the theme of move-
ment and dance." With the im-
age of Mona Lisa (page 61),
"I wanted to move and repeat

the woman's eye to look at us

as well as introspectively at her-
self." Years before, she had cre-

ated a stir in the art world with

her theory that the Mona Lisa
was a "self- portrait" of Da Vin-
ci. In her Figures in a Garden
and Figures and Circles
(page 62 top and bottom), she
"was trying to use color to pro-
voke the viewer to move
around the picture."
Other images were painted
directly on the terminal: the se-
ries Beyond Picasso (pages
60 and 63 top and 66 bottom),
Owl Eyed (page 63), Shaped
Like a Fruit{page 67 bottom),
and Faces Red in
Ellipse —
Place, and Red Leaks Out
(pages 64 and 65, top). (All of
theimages shown on these
pages are discussed in The
Computer Art Book, to be pub-
lished in April 1991 by WW.
THE COMPUTER LETS YOU CREATE AND CHANGE SHAPES, SHIFT THE FOCAL POINT OF A PAINTING, OR EXPERIMENT WITH COLOR.
WITH 3-D IMAGING YOU CAN VIEW ART FROM EVERY PERSPECTIVEBCHWARTZ PEELS AWAY AT THE FRUITS OF CEZANNE'S LABORS.
computer
Norton.) "The as a
canvas has many advan-
tages," she says. For instance,
in Shaped Like a Fruit, a work
in progress, Schwartz plans to
combine her background in Chi-
nese brushwork with cubism to
alter the apples. "The comput-
er lets me do an audit trail of
my creative process."
Schwartz selects palettes
with a sense of lightness. "I
stay with colors that are full of
—
good feeling it helps balance
heavy, gut-wrenching images.
When can't dispel these im-
I

ages, switch to art history and

I

analyze other artists' works."

With the advent of more pow-
erful software combined with
the latest in touch-sensitive
screens and better human-engi-
neered pens, the possibilities
are limitless. "The eye of the art-
ist looks to the future as well

as to the present," Schwartz

says, which is what her self-por-
trait (above), staring through

a Marcel Duchamp sculpture,

v*- seems to do. —Bob Berger
 —

—
WHY CANT
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 48
uals are also influenced by environment
and can vary with changing personal en-
vironmental situations.
not mine but others', misused
know, quoted as justifying why men are
you

more likely to be engineers. That's a gi-

There is also growing- evidence that ant leap from actual knowledge. It's a
tested. This might provide further evi- steroids alter connectivity between var- big step from seeing relatively subtle hor-
dence a neurobiologies! basis to sex-
of ious parts of the brain throughout life. monal contributions to behavior to see-
ual orientation and might be convinc- Neurons can remodel their synapses ing the average woman make substan-
ing to those strongly biased to a solely develop new or retract old ones. It's con- tially less money than the average man,

environmental theory."
Witelson hopes such findings could
improve the way homosexuals are un-
derstood by society. "Our results sug-
gest that homosexual orientation is not
unnatural for homosexuals," she says.
"It's as natural for them as heterosexu-
al orientation is for heterosexuals.
way the brain develops anatomically,
then functionally, has a large early
hormonal component. One of the
things the brain develops is sexual ori-
entation. Thisis one of many variations
withineach genetic sex."
Hormonal changes throughout life
may affect thinking as well. Canadian
psychologists Doreen Kimuraand Eliz-
ceivable that women make new neu-
ronal connections wheh estrogen is ris-
ing and, in the postovutatory phase at
the end of the cycle, lose them. "I'm in
the obstetrics and gynecology depart-
ment at Yale," says De Lacoste, "be-
cause the department has a long-stand-
The ing interest in the role of estrogen in syn-
aptic remodeling. This is an ideal envi-
ronment to find out in what ways ste-
roids influence how neurons live or die
by synaptic remodeling. think scien- I "The sexes are different and it does no
tistsare going to find that sex hormones
have a pervasive influence not only on
brain development but on aging and var-
ious stages throughout life.
or seeing the vast majority of heads of
state and CEOs being male."
Yet while critics worry that women
may become objects of increased op-
pression because of sex differences in
the brain, most of the prominent re-
searchers in the field are women,
Hines suspects there, is just a natural
interest in the field among women be-
cause women are most often the vic-
tims of sex stereotypes. Witelson says,
good to assume they're not. We're not
going to help equal opportunity and
equal recognition when we assume
They aren't both are equally good in all aspects,
when it may well be that there are cer-

abeth Hampson found that during dif- tain things each sex is somewhat bet-
ferent stages of their menstrual cycle ter at." And many women biologists say
150 women performed differently on var- the findings will have a positive impact.

ious tests. The difference appeared to Indeed, sex research is uncovering

be controlled by shifts in estrogen lev-
^Scientists variations in the way brain cells are pro-
els. When estrogen levels were high, are going to discover that grammed to respond to chemical sig-
just before ovulation, women performed nalssuch as neurotransmitters and cir-
sex hormones
as much as 10 percent better on such culating hormones. In animal studies

items as tongue twisters, a test of mo- have a pervasive influence investigatorshave found that male as
torand verbal dexterity or, as Kimura — not only on the well as female neurons have receptors
puts it, "the articulatory, complex man- forestrogens. "Those receptors in the
ual, verbal fluency, and some percep- development of the brain but male and female brain are pretty simi-
tual speed tests, on which women are on aging and lar; both have the same number and

often superior to men." Tests of spatial

ability showed the reverse effect "in
on various stages of life 3 distribution," says McEwen. "But you
Ihen look at what estrogens and proges-
if

that they were depressed for women in terones, another female hormone
the high-estrogen phase." In the low- group, do to male and female brains,
estrogen phase marking the beginning you'll find that the male is not always
of the cycle,though, the women per- responding in the same way as the fe-
formed better than usual on spatial per- at all there just for your preovulatory male brain, It's at that level you can be-
ception tests, such as picking a shape surge or stuff like that." gin to see how the program of the cell
out of a complex pattern. They might Even with mounting data on sex dif- has become different."
complete 40 spatial tasks in three min- ferences, the controversy goes on. "On This is basic chemical information sci-
utes on low-estrogen days and only 35 average, women and men perform dif- entists will obtain only after identifying
on high-estrogen days. ferently. But when it comes to trying to sex differences in the brain. The knowl-
"I'm not at all surprised by Kimura's assign causes or reasons, that's edge could lead to j drugs targeted
findings," says Gorski. "They fit with ev- where [the scientists] get into trouble," more accurately to each sex. "If we're
erything we've seen. If anything, her says Ruth Hubbard, a retired Harvard going to give women the equivalent med-
work is an updating of [American pio- biologist who has written extensively ical treatment as men," says Jean Ham-

neer endocrinologist] Charles Sawyer's. about women and biology. "In most so- ilton, a psychiatrist at the University of

More than thirty years ago he showed cieties men and women live very differ- Texas Southwestern Medical School,
that female sex hormones altered the ent lives, and so we develop very dif- "we'd better find out about sex differ-
level of excitability in the brain stem in ferent capabilities. We don't know how ences where they exist. Someday men
rabbits. This leads to changes in firing to translate anatomical sex differences and women may be treated differently
rates elsewhere, higher in the brain. The into behavioral difference." for conditions such as Alzheimer's dis-
speed and quality of how we think^ Hines thinks much of the criticism is ease and epilepsy, and the treatments
move, and speak could well be affect- based on faulty logic. "The thought is will be more effective because they are

ed by hormones." that if women are demonstrated to be different."

Men, too, experience daily fluctua- different from men, and is linked to it Finally, the value of the research is

tions in their sex steroids. Testosterone biological factors, then it will be used not just for understanding why men and
is higher in the morning than in the eve- to justify social inequities. It's assumed women differ, says Hines, "but also for
ning. How these changes affect think- that if women they'll be de-
are different, understanding basic processes of
ing skills is unknown. But recent reports valued for Unfortunately, this has
It. brain and behavioral development." Yet
indicate testosterone levels correlate sur- been true historically, but it doesn't the added bonus would be that the an-
prisingly well with certain behavioral 'have to be true." Still, she is concerned cient question about the sexes could be
traits, such as dominance and power that neurobiology may be twisted to jus- permanently replaced by a simple dec-
seeking. Testosterone levels in individ- tify discrimination. "I've seen research, laration: Vive la difference. DO
58 OMNI
"I'll tell you straight out:
Sex differences in the human brain exist,
and some are shaped by the sex
hormone environment," says a leading
neuroscientist who stands at,
the hot center of a controversial field
IfUTERVIEUU
DOCTORS SAY POSSIBLE TO CHANGE SEX OF BABY
W0M8I MALE TRANSSEXUAL NURSES INFANT WITH MILK
IN
FROM OWN BREASTS. TRANSSEXUALS CONTEMPLATE BRAIN-
IMPLANT SURGERY TO COMPLETE SEX-CHANGE OPERATION. The
firs!statement is a banner headline from a popular Ameri-
can tabloid. The others could well appear in the same spot
within a decade.
Underlying each of these astounding statements is fairly
common knowledge that hormones secreted by the ovaries
and testes play a crucial role in shaping male and female
patterns of physical appearance and development. But on-
ly recently has a revolutionary idea begun to gain credence
within the scientific community: that these same hormones
mold the very architecture of male and female brains along
significantly different lines. And these structural differences
PHOTOGRAPH BY NORMAN SEEFF
laiddown from fetal life to adolescence— are maintained and
modified by sex hormones throughout life.
This explosive new area of brain research is generally
called the study of the brain's sexual "dimorphism," mean-
ing two distinct shapes or structures —male and female. At
the center of this controversial field is Roger Gorski, profes-
sor and chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell
Biology of the University of California at Los Angeles School
of Medicine, and director of the Laboratory of Neuroendocri-
nology of the Brain Research Institute. "Today," says
Gorski, "there is a definite list of areas in the brain showing
male-female structural differences. In trying to understand
neurobiology, you'remuch better off assuming a part of the
brainis sexuallydimorphic until you've proven it isn't."
Gorski did not set out to foment a sexual revolution in
 —

brain research, "or anything like it." sabbatical and never returned. Gorski on brain structure and function.
Born in 1935, he loved the weather, "be- wound up with Barraclough's research To this day the SDN is "far and away
cause in Chicago," he giggles, "If you grant, his postdoc, and his technician. the area of gre,-i esl!
sox dimorphism yet
don't like the weather, wait a few min- "So of course," laughs Gorski, "I did not found in the mammalian brain," says
utes —and change," Born of a "mod-
it'll leave. And I
haven't left the field either." Gorski. Neuroscientists haven't con-
est, if not quite modest" Polish family, Shortly after Barraclough's exit, fined their search for sex differences in
Gorski's only hope of attending the dis- Gorski had an epiphany. He was no long- brain structures to lab animals. Anal-
tinguished—and expensive— meteoro- er just probing for differences in the yses of hundreds of human brains re-
logical school at the University of Chi- small region of rats' brains that con- veal Kink ng siruciural differences in the

cago was a scholarship exam. When he trolled hormone secretion, mating, and brains of boysand girls, men and wom-
didn't make it, he switched inlo biolo- reproduction. He was trying, he real- en.These may not only affect differ-
gy, having been turned on to zoology. ized, to fathom the very process of sex- ences in sex behavior and attitudes but
He entered the master's program at the ual differentiation of the brain itself. "We also underlie differences in such high-
University of Illinois at Champaign, are ail basically female," he argues. "If er brain functions as memory, percep-
where he began to assist "an animal sci- the chromosomally genetic male tion, cognition, imagination, and control

ence person." Suddenly he was corre- doesn't either see or respond to testic- of bodily movement. Psychologists, ed-
lating the electrical impulses in the ular hormones, he will have a female ucators, and feminists argue that each
brains of sheep with ovulation and lov- — brain and body. Without hormonal ac- sex's "intrinsic strengths," if not "intrin-
ing it. "You're really in neuroendocrinol- tion, the female pattern will emerge sic vulnerabilities," are the result of mil-

ogy," counseled a savvy adviser when across the board in rat or man." Gorski lennia of culture' pressures upon the in-
Gorski was looking for a Ph.D. program, saw that his career would focus on an- fant, child, and adolescent to assume
"so go to UCLA. That's a hotbed for it." swering one basic question: How do definite roles in play, work, and social

"I didn't wait," recalls Gorski.
into my 1947 DeSoto, drove straight to
Los Angeles and the anatomy depart-
ment, and was assigned to Charlie Bar-
raclough." Having a mentor as freewheel-
ing and creative as Barraclough— who
often dazzled his students with jazz
riffs —
was a stroke of luck for Gorski.
Not only did Barraclough initiate him in-
"I got sex hormones bring about the sexual dif- situations. Buinow neuroendocrine phys-
ferentiation ol the brain? iologistsand other researchers are be-
In 1978, almost by accident, he ginning to demur.
made his landmark finding: that a pre- So after three decades of research,
viously uncharted area in the rat. hypo- where does Roger Gorski stand on this
thalamus was five times as large in high-voltage issue? He is very, very cau-
males as in females. This dramatic dif- tious. "If you attribute particular behav-
ference in size was due entirely to the iors or performance advantages par- —
impact of sex hormones on the devel- ticularly cognition —
to hormone-induced

to the techniques of experimentally sex- oping brain. His discovery, which he chances in brain structure, to some peo-
reversing the reproductive functions of christened the sexually dimorphic nu- ple that's a very dangerous, sexist ob-
rats, but after they had worked togeth- cleus, or SDN, gave him an ideal mod- servation. People could certainly exploit

er for two years, Barraclough went on
el to study ihe effect of sex hormones
that observation and act prejudicial ly in
countless ways, saying females can't
do this, males can't do that. But to me,
since biological sex differences exist,
the two sexes are better off knowing
about them. One may argue about the
value of societally induced'sex differ-
ences, but biological sex differences
are here to slay." Despite the "danger-
ous implications," Gorski is convinced
the dimensions of the field he's pio-
neered will, anything, grow larger and
if

clearer. "All aspects of neu rob io logy-

may nor turn out to be sexually dimor-
phic. But it seems unconscionable in

thisday and age that anyone would do

a study without paying attention to
sex."— Douglas Stein

Omni: What did your first studies in sex-

ual differences focus on?
Gorski: When I came to Barraclough's
lab in 1959, he was looking at how the
brain controlled ovulation. In ihe mid-
Fifties he'd shown that a single injec-
tion of male sex hormone in female ro-
dents during the early postnatal period
would sterilize the females when they
became adults. He had no proof of
where the hormone acted. Togefhe' we
injected female rats with testosterone
the major testicular hormone to block —
ovulation, then tried to restore it with elec-
trode stimulation in different parts of the
brain. We knew that stimulating the pre-
hypothalamus normal-
optic area of the
lycauses female rats to. ovulate spon- It

taneous ovulation is blocked. But the

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 :
masculinized ornale tailed lo ovulate
when we stimulated this area. This fail-
ure suggested that the preoptic area is
a key brain site for hormone action in
sexual differentiation.
Omni: How did you realize you were
dealing with something far bigger ihan
control ol ovulation?
Gorski: We'd shown that if a newborn
male rat is castrated and then given an
ovarian transplant when he's grown, his
brain will support ovulation. At that
time was preoccupied simply with the
I
control of ovulation. I'll never forget the
day [neuroscientist] Seymour Levine
dropped iruo my ;ab aticr returning
from England, where they'd performed
similar studies. As we talked, it sudden-
ly dawned on me that the neural con-
trol of ovulation was just the tip of the
We were actually dealing with
iceberg.
a much more fundamental process:
How does the brain differ between the
sexes, and how do sex hormones
bring about these differences? From
that day I've devoted my career to
these questions.
Omni: Don't most neuroscientists stiil
think this sexual diMoreniiaiion involves
only the hypothalamus?
Gorski: To some, it makes no sense
that there could be sex differences in
other parts of the brain. argue, how-
I
ever, that the brain is just part of the re-
productive system and all of
productive sys-.em undergoes sexual Dif-
mammals are basically
ferentiation, All
female—rincludir.a external genitalia, the
internal sex organs excluding the go-
nads, and the brain. If you deny the de-
veloping brain exposure to testicular
hormones during a precise time inter-
val, you get a dramatic and permanent
change. If the chromosomal ly genetic
mate either doesn't see or respond to
testicular hormones, "he" will have a fe-
male appearance, including the outer
sex organs and the brain.
Look at the influence of sex or gen-
der identity on life-style. In evolutionary
history it's generafly the male who
goes out to hunt and bring back the
food. Wouldn't eons of this kind of ac-
tivity lead to changes in male brain struc-
ture? To me sex differences are ubiq-
uitous. The entire process of reproduc-
tion and the whole brain are geared to-
ward survival of the species.
Omni: Why do male brains require es-
trogen, the so-called female sex
hormone, to become masculinized?
Gorski: Other researchers have shown
that the metabolic conversion of testic-
ular testosterone lo estrogen is a re-
quired step in masculinizing male
brains. While seems astonishing that
it
estrogen masculinizes the male, it
does reflect a common error: that es-
trogen is the "female" and testosterone
the re- ihfi "male" sex hormone. That's not
true. What is important is the ratio of
these two hormones.
Omni: If estrogen masculinizes, does
that mean in female babies there is no
estrogen?
Gorski: Very logical, but no. In rats
rhere is a special protein, called alpha
fetoprotein, that binds the estrogen in
the blood so that it cannot act biologi-
cally.Although in both sexes fetal
blood levels of estrogen are high dur-
ing pregnancy and shortly after birth,
testosterone is not bound by alpha
fetoprotein,so enters the brain and,
it
afterbeing converted to estrogen with-
inneurons, masculinizes them.
Omni: Does alpha fetoprotein also ex-
ist In humans?
Gorski: Yes, but it doesn't appear to
bind estrogen. suspect there must be
I
another bioc hemic. substance or proc-
=i-
ess that protects the brain of the human
female fetus from the high estrogen ley-
els of pregnancy. Actually, some scien-
tists think that exposure to estrogen is
necessary for the development of the
female brain as well. They argue that
the brain is actually neuter. And even
in the female, estrogen is important for
normal brain development. There's no
question that enough estrogen will mas-
culinize the brain —
in the genetic male
or female. Whether a female's brain is
intrinsically female or requires a little es-
trogen to become truly -emale is a tricky
question. Our studies show that for the
female brain a little estrogen during de-
velopment is good; too much is not.
Omni: Why is there such resistance to
these sex differences?
Gorski: Because the brain is still con-
sidered such a mysterious organ, many
scientists find it hard to accept that it
might be significantly different in
males and females, and affected by
something foreign to the brain like go-
nadal hormones. Per years after I'd be-
gun to look at the impact of steroids, I
still viewed the brain as above all
these interactions. Part of the reason
was that the parameters studied were
not all or none. While the standard pos-
ture of sexual receptivity tor female sex
behavior is lordosis, males, too, can
show it. That means the equivalent neu-
ral circuitry for expressing lordosis ex-
ists in the male rat brain, too.
I had personally looked at hundreds
of rat brains and never noticed struc-
tural differences. But almost all .our stud-
iesfocused on males one time or on fe-
males another time. never directly com- I
pared the two. But my thinking began
lo change when in :-973, Geoffrey Rrjs
man and Pauline Field showed that ma-
nioulating the sex hormone environment
cculd change brain structure. They stud-
ied neura, connections in rat brains and
found that dendrites formed synapses
quite differently in each sex in the ar-
eas they examined.
Omni: How did you discover the SDN?
Gorski: That's easy, didn't! II was ac-
I
tually seen first by a postdoc, Larry Chris-
tensen. He'd decided to learn electron
microscopy, and one day he came to
my ofiice and said he'd seen a major
structural sex difference in the preop-
tic area of the rat brain. Because most
of my studies of the last twenty years
had centered on that very area, I
laughed. Well, he took two slides— one
male, the other female— and projected
them on my wall. And there it was: The
nucleus of the male was much bigger.
In a minute he had me and everyone
else-in my lab convinced. It was so dra-
matic that once we recognized it, we
didn't even have to magnify the slides
to see the sex differences.
After thai, figured everyone looking
I
for structural sex differences would
find this one. This was the only time in
my professional career I've been in a
hurry to publish a paper. was slightly
I
paranoid that someone would beai us.
because the discovery was so damn ob-
it's really amazing
vious. In retrospect,
that someone not only could have, but
should have, and didn't notice. There
are brain atlases for surgery that assign
coordinates as on a map to the various
brain nuclei. They all had missed it.
What does this say about science?
That you can miss the truth because it's
just too obvious? Or that we see what
we expect to see, or not see.
Tue New aud iMFRovec?
STePFoRP WIFE.
76 OMNI
The SDN is about five times bigger
in males lhan females, and that size dif-
ference is due principally to the num-
ber of neurons. Giving the female tes-
tosterone for a prolonged period dur-
ing fetal life compioiely sex-reverses the
nucleus.If we castrate the male just af-
him with an antiestro-
ter birth or treat
genic agent, his nucleus becomes
more comparable in size with that of the-
female, so we can sex-reverse brain
structure by sex-reversing steroid input
during the critical development period.
Omni: Are other hypothalamic areas larg-
er in one sex or another?
Gorski: The VMN [ventromedial nucle-
us], which is associated with both eat-
ing and aggression, has now been
strongly implicated in control of female
sex behavior. Because it is larger in
males, you might say, Aha, this nucle-
us inhibits female sex behavior in
males— keeps 'em straight, as it were.
There are a couple of others, but the
SDN is the area of greatest sex dimor-
phism of any mammalian brain region.
Omni: What does the SDN do?
Gorski: Life is sometimes bitter. For
years we studied numerous sexually di-
morphic functions, looking for their struc-
tural basis. Now we're sitting in the op-
posite camp. We have a very marked
structural sex difference, but we still
don't know what does. How many neu-
it
rons there' are or where they may be lo-
cated is much less important than
what neurochemicals they produce or
with what other neurons they connect.
We still have to define these. We don't
yet know whether the SDN facilitates or
inhibits some reproductive process. Per-
haps it inhibits female sex behavior in
the male, suppressing femate sexual be-
haviors like lordosis or attitudinal ones
like the "maternal" instinct. Perhaps the
neurons of the SDN are involved by in-
fluencing aggression or food intake. Per-
haps it serves an integrative function,
balancing hormonal, environmental, or
sensory signals, like light or smell.
Could we postulate that the SDN con-
trolsevery sexually dimorphic function?
Certainly we could, but we just as cer-
tainlycould be wrong.
Omni: You often distinguish between
centers for sexual behavior and others
for control ofhormones. Is the "center"
concept valid?
Gorski: For a number of years the con-
cept was robust in this field, because
you could consistently change animal
behavior by electrostimulating or lesion-
ing a small brain area. But unfortunate-
ly, these centers overlap. The "center"
for temperature regulation, for instance,
isquite close to the "center" for sexual
behavior. Sometimes a given nucleus
can have multiple functions. Take the
VMN, near the center of the hypothala-
mus. If you lesion it, animals cannot be
sated; some of Ihese rats become so
fat they can barely move. But the
same lesion gives you an extremely ag-
gressive and furious rat. Normally, you
handle rats without gloves, but when
you destroy the VMN, you better wear
lead gloves! And VMN lesions cause
the female to show no-sex behavior. So
one "part" of the VMN may be con-
cerned with female sex behavior, anoth-
er with eating, a third with aggression.
But that's an oversimplification. Each is
not neatly enparcelated. The concept
of the "center" is rarely accepted today.
Omni: The late Norman Geschwind com-
piled a body of work suggesting that tes-
tosterone, acting on the developing
brain, encourages disordered neuronal
growth and misconnections. The result,
he argued, is that males are more
prone to a range of nervous and im-
mune system disabilities. What do you
think of the "Geschwind thesis"?
Gorski: support the general concept
I
that during development sex hormones
alter rates of neuronal migration, forma-
tion of connections, and even the
shape pathways. There
of large-scale
is clearly a link between the nervous
and immune systems and steroid
hormones. Data that support Gesch-
wind's thesis show that many prob-
—
lems allergies, schizophrenia, and var-
ious learning disabilities — only manifest
completely at puberty, when testoster-
one production reaches adult levels. It's
quite possible that sex hormones have
 —

some "negative activational" role in ner- it virtually as a reflex. We don't give the predispose ;j parson to react one way
vous and immune system disorders. animals any chance to exhibit partner or another to environmental stimulus.
Bui Geschwind's ideas don't really fit preference. We don't ask them if they I don't think anyone has ever success-
with the fact that the greatest effect of enjoyed the encounter. fully correlated hormone levels in adults
sex hormones on development is Animal sexuality is overwhelmingly de- with sexual behavior or preference. Vir-
much earlier. We know
testosterone in- pendent on sex hormones— much tually all be secreting
of us seem to
fluences the developing male brain pri- more than in humans. The differences much more testosterone and estrogen
marily by being converted to estrogen. between human and rat are so great than we need. Sex hormone levels are
But basically view this testosterone as
I
you can't take data we've amassed on strongly influenced by genetic, ethnic,
just the male's means of getting estro- the sex behavior of the rat and treely and racial factors. Although androgen
gen up to his brain. So to accept apply them to humans. Some, Gunter levels in one ethnic group of men may
Geschwind, I'd really have to argue Dorner in particular, have. However be less than in the women of another
that it's an excess of estrogen that's and it is this however that brings me clos- ethnic group, that doesn't make those
causing these neuroirnmunological dis- er toDorner— the process of sexual dif- men less masculine than other males.
abilities. That's a bit extreme. ferentiation must apply to humans as it We don't know, for instance, how
Omni: You've said that the "complexi- does to all mammals. mean follows I it genes affect the responsiveness of neu-
ty and ambiguity of neurobiology is an the same course as does in the rat.
it rons to steroid hormones. Individual
endless challenge." Nowhere does In humans you can —
and do— have ge- men of differing ethnic and racial back-
that seem more apparent than in the ef- neticmales look and act like females, grounds might have a stronger or weak-
fects of sex hormones on human sexu- and masculinized genetic females who, er response to the same quantity of tes-
al orientation. at least, resemble males. tosterone, as ihwy might to alcohol, co-
Gorski: There used to be a complete di- Omni: Is there a strong biological ba- caine, Valium, or any other drug.
chotomy in viewing the origin of sexual sis in fetal hormone imbalances as — Hormones produced by the gonads
orientation: nature versus nurture, sex Dorner and others claim for sexual — circulate in the blood. But these blood
hormones versus environmental condi- behaviors labeled homosexuality, bi- levels may be almost meaningless.
tioning. Well, the last time heard John I
sexuality. transsexuality? What counts is how the person's indi-

Money talk, he said there is no contro- Gorski: Arguing from the rat—which I vidual physiology transforms the
versy. Both play a role. The question is just got finished saying you can't do hormone into meaningful signals. At pre-
how much each contributes to one's sex- the transsexual is the most likely con- sent in humans it's impossible to meas-
ual preference. We've talked about sex- dition to be explained by hormones. ure the sensitivity of neuronal receptors
ual dimorphism in the rat brain. It's a qua- That is, when an individual says, "I'm a to hormones or their products.

si-logicaljump from brain structure to woman in appearance, so why do I Omni: Dorner claims that homosexual
sexual orientation. But it is totally un- feel like a man 7 Homosexuality is far
"
males typically show an "LH [luteiniz-
founded. In the lab we test sex behav- more complex. Still, fetal hormone im- ing hormone] positive" response to an

iour in a very artificial situation, treating balances could — I'm not saying "do" injection of synthetic estrogen that is in

between that of heterosexual men and

normally menstruating women. Is this re-
sponse a valid index of homosexuality 7
Gorski: Ovulation is caused by a
marked surge of LH, and this surge is
triggered by rising 'evels ol ostrogen pro-
duced by the ovary feeding back to the
brain. The LH surge is the LH-positive
response, which in rats is exclusively a
female characteristic. But male mon-
keys normally show a positive response
to an estrogen injection. So for humans,
an LH-positive response may be an in-
appropriate index of homosexuality.
In humans you never know whether
those labeled "homosexual" are respond-
ing differently than "normal" males to
the estrogen injection because of
some stress. Darner's study was
based. believe, on a group of homo-
I

sexuals he was already seeing. If he

was "treating" them for their homosex-
uality, their possib'y negative attitude to-
ward their sexual preference could cer-
tainly bias his findings. The argument
is often given that if you find a homo-

sexual male with low testosterone, it's

because he's under pressure. This
stress is quite probably less for some-
one who lives openly gay, though I'm
not completely' sure of that.
Measuring hormones in adulthood
won't tell you a damn thing about their
levels in adolescence, childhood, or crit-
ical periods during fetal life. So you
must base your interpretations on ani-
mal work. And to pick the rat over the
 IfArnold Schwarzenegger wore
lipstick, could civilization as we know it survive?

BLURRING
THE LINES: ANDROGYNY
ON TRIAL
BY DON MONKERUD
One day Linda re1 er felt particular-
ceived a phone lycomfortable as
call from Laura, a businessman.
a friend for five So when his wife
years. Linda and accepted his
Laura regularly cross-dressing
met for coffee, ex- after work, he be-

changed dinner gan to change

invitations, and and ventured on-
chatted in the toa gender roll-
powder room at er coaster.
the local church. He had breast
"I've been living ; . lie," Laura con- implants inserted and removed sev-

r fessed. "I'm a ma i who had a sex
change operation, n going to slop
taking hormones and become a man
again. You can call me Walter."
Today stories of a man
cross-dressing or being "Irapped" in
an unwanted body are not that un-
common. In Laura's case the confu-
sion was overwhelming. Although he
was a successful national operations
manager at a Japanese automobile
company in California and was mar-
ried with two children, Walter had nev-
en times. When doctors told him he
could end his gender confusion with
a sex change operation, Walter
wrote a check for the operationand
or woman went for a walk. He came back two
hours later, tore the check up, and
went home. Two years later he had
the operation. His wife left. His chil-
dren won't speak to him. He lost his
job. "If surgery is the solution, what's
the problem?" he asks today.
Walter feels victimized by socie-
ty's expectation of what it means

PAINTINGS BY MEL ODOM

 FOR SOME PEOPLE, ANDROGYNY CAN PROVIDE BOTH A VISION OF UTOPIA ANIW A MODEL FOR MENTAL HEALTH.
to be a man. He her crotch. Since 1979 between 7,000 such a sex-stereotype-sensitive group. playmates three times as much as they "Children," says and behaviors the culture may have
.found thai being a and 12,000 sex change operations Still,it was as if the Germans and the did with cross-sex playmates in mixed Maccoby, "make infer- stereotypically defined as inappropriate
jrnan was even have been performed in the United French staked out positions jettisoning groups. At six and a half, they were 1 ences from culture- her sex."
for his or
rarse. After his States, according to the Henry Benjam- patriarchy but returning to aspects of times more likely to play with children of wide information. As Bern and her husband tried to elimi-
operation he in International Gender Dysphoria Asso- femininity, while the Americans opted for the same sex. veil-known, once nate sex stereotyping from their own
i
felt confident. ciation of Palo Alto, California. Fifty per- gender amorphousness. Well, Europe- Yet Maccoby found considerable vari- the stereotypes behavior by sharing household chores,
k he'd be able cent are of the female-to-male variety. ans are more style conscious than Ameri- ation on any given day in the children's have been formed, bathing the children, making dinner
On the street, gender bending ex- cans. But on the whole, the French and degree of playmate choice. She discov- they tend to become and giving them trucks and
I tocontinuehis together,
But it
-.
presses itself in fashion. Men and boys German female participanls wore more ered that socialization affected sex- self- perpetuating and dolls irrespective of their sex. In read-
didn't happen. are wearing earrings and hair of any makeup and jewelry, a greater variety typed attitudes more, perhaps, than how resistant to change- ing material they looked for nonster-
When Laura applied for upper-level po- length; women don boxer shorts. Be- of hairstyles — they played with their fem- masculine or feminine the child ap- even on the basis of information that de- eotypical stories, They even doctored
sitions, employers discovering her sex haviorally women praciice assertive tech- ininity. The Americans seemed plainer, peared. "The connection between indi- stroys the stereotype." books, drawing beards on waitresses
change wouldn't hire her. When she ap- niques and men try to be nurturing. Le- with short hair, little makeup or jewelry. vidual personalities and preference for How reliable are studies claiming ei- and giving truck drivers "female" hair-
plied for a low-levei position, employers gally, manifests itself in litigation over
it They wore clothes the French women same-sex playmates is weak at best," ther biology or environment is the shap- styles. Men and women were defined
claimed she was overqualified. equal pay for equal work and a father's probably wouldn't wear around the she says. "Socialization occurs when chil- ing force of gender? "Examples of stud- as such in stories only if they had a va-
Once Laura took a position as a clerk time off for childbirth. The possibilities house on a rainy day. The Americans dren are presented with activities ies proving environment's effect are gina or penis to determine their sex. The
and was quickly promoted to secretary for expressing one's sexual identity to- took a more austere, intellectual ap- based on gender; for example, they clas- hard to find." says neuropsychologist San- couple censored television programs.
for a vice-president. But her boss, day are multifaceted and novel to the proach to the gender dilemma. sify sports and occupations by whether dra Witelson of Mclvlaster University in At age four, Bern's son, Jeremy,
demanding that Laura serve coffee and human race. So how will the concepts "One thing is for sure," stated Anna or not men or women practice them." Ontario. "There are many showing little wore barrettes to nursery school. One
be acquiescent, got irritated when she of masculine and feminine be defined? Kuhn, from the University of California, This process begins at a young age. Mac- girls playing with dolls and boys with day a boy repeatedly told him that "on-
refused, and wanted her fired. People What will replace conventional sex- Davis, as if to underscore the American coby maintains that some gender activ- trucks. It is common to say this is be- ly girls wear barrettes." Jeremy tried to
treated her "with disrespect" and her defined behavior in the future? stance. "Until we redefine behavior in ities are biological universals, such as cause parents buy dolls for girls and re- explain that wearing barrettes didn't
income plummeted. With such questions in mind, recent- I terms of human, rather than masculine women giving birth. Others exist in a inforce this, and buy trucks for boys and make one a boy or girl: Only genitalia
Depressed and very lonely. Laura ly went to a Stanford University confer- and feminine, we are locked in a dance gray area with both biological and so- reinforce that. But the real question is, did. Finally, in frustration, he pulled
stopped taking estrogen. Walter took ence on androgyny, sponsored by the of death," In a swirl of clothes, the pro- cial elements affecting behavior, and What shaped the parents' choice of down his pants to show the boy that hav-
charge and let his beard grow back in. Research on Women and
Institute for fessor of German, who has made ex- some, like men driving trucks or women toys for their children in the first place? ing a penis made him a boy. The boy
"It'sa lot easier finding a job as Waiter Gender at Stanford as well as the tensive studies of the role of women in being secretaries, are completely arbi- It's possible that a sex difference in the responded, "Everybody has a penis; on-
than as Laura," he says. He'd like to French consulate and the Goethe Insti- Weimar and Nazi Germany, elaborated; traryand can change over time. child's response to various toys may in- ly girls wear barrettes." At the moment,
change into a man, but it's a S40.000 A male-centered vision perpetuates the fluence the parents' behavior."
series of operations to graft skin from world as a battleground, a place to con- If you thought the idea that women

his leg to build a new penis. Walter quer and struggle. Women are "the oth- belong in the kitchen went out with hand-
thinks he'll buy a house first so he can er," and men continually attempt to dom- cranked phonographs, here's Michael
be financially secure before he under- inate them, hence the war between the Levin, professor of philosophy at City Col-
goes the operation, sexes. Until we drop stereotypical ideas lege of New York. Levin asserts there's
On one level Walter is a candidate ot gender, she says, neither men nor a deep and abiding difference between
for intensive psychotherapy. On anoth- women will be free to develop as self- the sexes and that much modern un-
er level his dilemma is a more intense sufficient individuals. happiness comes from attempts to trans-
reflection of what many experience as Few investigators of human behavior form women into "pseudo-men." Many
they assume sex roles in a world of chang- leave gender-related issues out of their sex differences that are "nowadays at-
ing expectations. Sex-appropriate be- analysis. The term gen der became ac- tributed to oppression, discrimination,
havior is still prescribed and
for men wom- ceptable in the Seventies to signify an and telling fairy stories to children are
en in a society that increasingly merges individual's personal, legal, and social really just an expression of innate dif-
economic and social responsibilities and status without reference to one's genetic ferences," Levin says. "Nobody sits
styles. Yet the cracks in gender sex. "Gender was introduced to assert down to choose his personality. That's
identity are shattering the ster- that the sexes are not merely biological an idiotic way of putting it. You are giv-
eotypes. Pop figures like entities, or even primarily biological en- en your personality for the most part
Prince and Michael Jackson tities," explains Nancy Chodorow, pro- when you're born."
play off the confusion. Ma- fessor of sociology at Berkeley, "and to Levin or no Levin experiments to un-
,

donna wears men's suits make the case for gender as construct- the stereotypes are ongoing.
m- /'5?/-
: ; and occasionally grabs ed culturally, socially, economically, po- Sandra Bern, a Cornell University psy-
litically." Gender, then, may be in the chologist, has explored ways of creat-
Cher would tut in San Francisco. Conversing in Eng- mind of the beholder. ing genderless environments.On a per- Many of our
most likely say lish, French, and German and some- Most gender studies still revolve sonal level she has attempted to raise popular culture
no, but does times switching in mid-paragraph, the around the problem of nature or nurture own children "gender aschemati- Icons, in
having a single researchers articulated their positions on biology versus learned behavior. Chil- cally." For Bern, androgyny is the mod- fashioning their
name lead to modernity, cross-cultural variations on dren's studies, particularly those look- si. "For many people confused personas,
a blurring of a androgyny, experiments in sex chang- ing at differences in verbal and math about how to behave as a man or play the gender
person's sexual es, and gynandry, or the female equiv- skills in boys and girls, attempt to dis- woman, androgyny provides both game. This
identity? alent of androgyny. tinguish the influences of environment a vision of Utopia and a model of page, clockwise
Clockwise from Much of the talk was theoretical and or genetics. Many more observe chil- mental health," says the slight, from left:
left: Madonna; academic. But sexist or not, I couldn't dren's play habits. Eleanor Maccoby, a plainly dressed Bern in a tumul- George Michael,
Liberace, the help noticing how differently the wom- Stanford psychologist and pioneer in chil- tuous rush of ideas. "Androgy- David Bowie,
original king of en from various cultures presented them- dren's research, saw striking differenc- ny does not require the indi- Michael Jackson
rhinestone$; selves. Yes. it was the sort of observation es. Four-and-a-half-year-old nursery- vidual to banish from the Boy George,
and Prince. that could get me torn to ribbons in school children played with same-sex If whatever attributes and Grace Jones.
Bern refuses to discuss the results of
this "experiment": She's writing a book
about it,
Focusing on the gender baggage
that people carry around in their heads,
Bern embarked on a plan to dislodge
—
sex stereotypes which she considers
—
"immoral" and liberate the individual's
unique abilities and interests. Because
she perceived no suitable yardstick for
measuring "masculine" and "feminine,"
she developed her own. The Bern Sex-
Role Inventory (BSRI) is designed to
measure a person's ability to integrate
masculine and feminine traits. Bern and
her students collected a list of 200 per-
sonality characteristics they thought de-
fined masculine, neuter, and feminine
values. A sample of the BSRI's stereo-
typical masculine qualities includes
"forceful" and "risk-taking." Some fem-
inine stereotypical characteristics are
"cheerful" and "loyal." An initial
of 100 Stanford undergraduates— half
male, half female— judged these char-
acteristics on a scale ranging from "not
at all desirable" to "extremely desirable."
(To try your hand at the BSRI, turn to
"Gender Bender" on page 88. This ver-
sion of Bern's inventory, designed spe-
cially for Omni, asks you to categorize
as masculine, feminine, or genderless
some 1 20 personality characteristics.)
If a person scores high on the BSRI
in masculine characteristics and low in
feminine characteristics, he is said to
have a masculine sex role; high in fem-
if
inine and low in masculine traits, a fem-
inine sex role. If a person's masculinity
and femininity scores are approximate-
ly equal, that person is said to have an
androgynous sex role. Cross-sexed, or
"undifferentiated," individuals are men
or women with both low masculinity and-
femininity scores.
Investigators have used the BSRI to
— —
assess changing or static notions of
gender. Stanford's Sherri Matteo used
it to investigate why college students
choose to participate in certain sports.
She found many picked athletic events
that conformed to cultural norms of
masculinity and femininity and avoided
sports associated with the opposite sex.
Sex-typed individuals, those with the
strongest identification with their sex,
group chose their sport solely in this way
Other studies using the BSRI have
found that sex-typed individuals attend
more to a person's sex when judging
physical attractiveness and differentiate
between male and female speakers
when asked to recall "who said what" in
a group discussion. In another study by
Bern, subjects were offered choices to
test their willingness to perform sex-
—
inappropriate tasks such as men iron-
ing clothes. Sex-typed people rejected
these tasks and harbored more nega-
tive emotions about them.
Today, says Bernd Schmitt of the Grad-
uate School of Business at Columbia Uni-
versity, the BSRI remains an accurate
measure in studying degrees of sex typ-
ing and androgyny.
Yet androgyny, too, is controversial.
In the nineteenth century, writers such
as Wilde and Proust exemplified the an-
drogynous male as an artistic ideal nec-
essary to the highest creations; rooted
in the vision of a perfect man, androgyny
made a man whole by recognizing his
female aspects. Bourgeois convention-
however, deemed it a code name
ality,
for homosexuality. After being reintro-
duced in the Seventies, androgyny im-
mediately became politically incorrect.
Feminist critics said androgyny over-
looked women's inequality and focused
too much attention on personalities rath-
er than on class and power distinctions.
But at a time when one can be gay or
lesbian, transsexual, a cross dresser, a
caring man, or a dominant woman and
still be accepted in some part of our so-
cial landscape, androgyny seems to be
moving to the center. At the century's
beginning, Virginia Woolf believed that
everyone is partly male and partly fe-
male. She saw the mind as a taxi that
could be boarded by a man or woman,
with the male brain predominating in
men and the female in women. Another
way androgyny "would
of looking at not
entail some merging of the sexes into
an androgynous mutant, nor would pro- it
duce a hermaphroditic creature with
male and female genitalia or beards and
breasts," says Marilyn Yalom of Stan-
ford. "I have in my mind's eye the im-
age of a piano with its eighty-eight
keys. Everyone would have access to a
full keyboard. Women would not be lim-
higher-pitched notes, nor the
ited to the
men to the lower scales."
Androgynous images have long ex-
isted among performers. Rudolph Valenti-
no unmasked transvestism by appearing
at once feminine and masculine in
robes, eyebrow pencil, and lipstick. El-
vis shocked the Grand Ole Opry when
he wore eye shadow, a precursor to his
rhinestone-studded jumpsuits and se-
quins. Liberace, who single-handedly
supported the Australian rhinestone in-
dustry and taught androgynous fantasy
to the rock stars of the Eighties, may
have hit the apex of his career when he
hooked himself up to piano wires to fly
across the stage as Peter Pan: a middle-
aged man, dressing like a woman, play-
ing a young boy. By 1984 Boy George
could blithely address national TV say-
ing, "I want to thank America for know-
ing a good drag queen when they see
one." And Grace Jones can ponder her
86 OMNI
Janus-iaced dual image as supermacho
superwoman. "When put on a wig with
I Bly recognizes the evils of patriarchy.
long hair, look like a hooker or drag
I
queen. So actually look more feminine
I
when dress like a man."
I
Today men look like women; women,
men. You see in Calvin Klein ads, in
it
pitches for Solo-Flex machines, and in
deodorant commerciajs, observes the
University of Southern California's Nan-
cy Vickers. Just as female bodies were
once draped around spark plugs and
bottles of scotch, the male body today
is sexualized with erotic images. Top
Gun, says Vickers, contains an under-
tone of gay relationships between mien
Vickers isn't sure where this will lead in
the next 20 years. "What do think isI
breaking down is a set of binary oppo-
sitions between the sexes."
Yet even as these binaries diffuse in-
to a rainbow of gender orientations, a
counterforce is mounting to "recapture"
masculinity. The poet Robert Bly has
achieved renown conducting workshops
to help men get in tune with "the wild
man inside." For Bly, the wild man is an
essential mythic connection to the
and other men and not the macho
earth
or savage man, who has developed
what Bly calls the second-rate,
ing side of his identity. Despite teach-
ing workshops where attendees are en-
couraged to crawl on
all
heads, snort, and engage in flatulence,
"Masculine is not synonymous with men,
and feminine with women," he'explains.
"A man needs to develop both his femi-
nine and masculine sice:-; as strongly as
he can, then distinguish between them
and live in the resonating space be-
tween. Yet," he adds, "a man who is
ashamed of his masculinity will not be a
good citizen or a good husband."
A recent "Theater of Virility," conduct-
ed by Montreal Jungian analyst Guy Cor-
neau, was devoted to coming to grips
with "image," "aggression," and "inti-
macy." "Whether it is Adrien-the-Hero,
Gaetan-the-Homosexual, Narcis-
sus-the-Un loved, Valentine-the-Seducer,
Christian-the-Macho..." or others,
claimed the brochure, "their portraits are
timeless; they represent the forms that
masculinity has been taking for cen-
turies." With these identities under
siege, it's no wonder men join such
groups. Others respond by becoming
armchair Rambos. Most are aware the
old rules no longer apply, and they don't
know what the new rules are. Why do
macho men behave the way they do?
I
asked Matteo. The tall, slender instruc-
domineer- who could be mistaken for a busi-
tor,
ness executive, admitted she "doesn't
have much insight there." She simply
fours, butt Dtds this type of male, Matteo says,
 How do Americans define masculinity and femininity?
Take thisquiz and find out

GENDER BENDERS: WHAT SEX ARE YOU REALLY?

We are surrounded by sym- were among 200 personali- you think determine our cul- cnarscteristics. How does
bols of who we are. We ty characteristics research- tural models of masculinity society characterize the be-
watch TV, read books and ers used to evaluate mascu- and femininity or those havior? Ask yourself: How
magazines, are inundated line and feminine roles for that are genderless, or neu- characteristic is it for aman
by ads that presume much the Bern Sex Role Invento- tral. Ask From the
yourself: to be "abrupt," or a wom-
ry (BSRI). Designed to aid standpoint of American cul- an "abrupt," or is the charac-
about our sexual ideniiiios
The definition of the "right" research on androgyny, ture, is more characteris-
it teristic "neutral"?

behavior'for a man or wom- the test asks, Can a person tic of a man or a woman to Mark each item with an
psychologically integrate display the following behav- F for feminine, an M for
an is thesubject of intense

debate. What does mascu- society considers mas-

line or feminine mean to-
day? What are the stereo-
types? The following items
:raits
culine or feminine?
From the word list below,
choose the characteristics
iors? Suspend, for the mo- masculine, or an N for
ment your individual judg- neutral. Afterward, com-
ment whether a man or pare your selections with
woman should display She those of the researchers.

IB Patient
Abrupt
Active
' Perceptive
Acts as leader
Affectionate
Possessive
Aggressive Punctual
Alert
Quick
Ambitious Relaxed
Analytical Reliable
Assertive
Respectful
Astute Responsible
Self-reliant
Athletic
Self-sufficient
Bright
Broad-minded Selfish

Casual Sensitive to needs of others

Cheerful Serious
Childlike Shy
Clean Sincere
Clever Skilled

Compassionate Sociable
Competitive Soft-spoken
Complex Sophisticated
Conservative Stingy
Conventional Strong personality
Cultured Stubborn
Defends own beliefs Sympathetic-
Deliberate Tactful

Democratic Tender
Disciplined Thorough
Disorganized Gentle Jealous Thoughtful
Doesn't use harsh language Good-natured Lazy Tolerant
Dominant Greedy Leadership ability Unconventional
Eager to soothe hurt feelings Gullible Likable Understanding
Easygoing Happy Lively Unpredictable
Energetic Hasty Loves children Vigorous
Entertaining '

Honest Loyal Warm

Experienced Humble Makes decisions easily Willing to accept change
Extravagant Humorous Masculine Willing to take a stand
Fair-minded Idealistic Mature Willing to take risks

Fashionable Imaginative Moderate Witty

Feminine Impulsive Moralistic Worldly
Finicky Independent Nice Yielding
Flatterable Individualistic Nonchalant
Forceful Industrious Obstinate See page 142 to see how
Forthright Insightful Open-minded accurately you rated the
Generous Intense Opinionated characteristics. DO
 OMETHING
ABOUT A DEATH, SOMETHING
ABOUT A FIRE
FICTION BY PETER STRAUB
The origin and even gician's rolling up his
the nature of Bobo's twinkling sleeves — Bo-
Magic Taxi remain mys- bo always stood near
terious, and the Taxi is the mechanics, in a
still the enigma it was condition of visible anx-
when it first appeared iety. He scratched his

before us on the saw- head, grinned foolish-

dust floor. Of course it ly, beeped a tiny horn
does not lack for exe- attached to his belt,
getes: possess sev-
I
turned cartwheels in be-
eral manila folders wilderment. His con-
jammed to bursting cern always sent the
with analyses of the children into great
Taxi and speculations bouts of laughter. But
on its nature and con- 1felt that this apparent

struction. "The Bobo In- anxiety was a real anx-

dustry" threatens to be- iety: that Bobo feared

come giant. that one night the Ein-

For many years, as stein of mechanics,
you may remember, the Freud of mechan-
the inspection of the Taxi by expert and im- ics, would uncover the principle that made the

partial mechanics formed an integral portion
of the act. This examination, as scrupulous
as the best mechanics could make it, never
found any way in which the magnificent Taxi
differed from other vehicles of its type. There
was no special apparatus or mechanism en-
abling it to astonish, delight, and terrify, as it
Magic Taxi unique and thereby spoil its ef-
fectiveness forever. For who remains im-
pressed by a trick, once the mechanism is ex-
posed? The mechanics grunted and sweat-
ed, probed the gas tank, got on their backs
underneath the Taxi, bent deep into the mo-
tor, covered themselves with grease and car-

still does. When this inspection was still in bon so that they, too, looked like comic
the performance — the equivalent of the ma- tramps, and at the end of their time, gave up,

PAINTINGS BY LANI IRWIN

 r N APPEARANCE
IT
WAS AN ORDINARY TAXI- LONG, BLACK, SQUAT-OF THE SORT
GENERALLY SEEN IN LONDON.

They could not find a Sometimes, when the

thing, not even regis- Taxihas reached the
numbers on the
tration point where the cur-
engine block, nor tain beginsto sweep
trade names on any of up over the hood, Bo-
the engine's compo- bo raises his white-
nent parts. gloved, three-fingered
In appearance i

hand in a wave. The

was an ordinary taxi, wave seems regretful,
long, black, squat as a as if he wishes he
stone cottage, of the could get out of the
sort generally seen in Taxi and join us up
London, Bobo sat at in the uncomfortable
the wheel as the Taxi stands. So he waves,
entered the tent, his Then it is over.
square behatted head There is little to say
flush against the Plexi- about the perform-
glas window that ance, The perform-
opened onto the larg- ance is always the
er rear compartment. same. Also it differs
This was empty but for slightly from viewer to
the upholstered back- viewer. Children, to
seat and the two facing chair seats. It was judge from their chatter, see something like
the very image of the respectable, apart a fireworks display, The Taxi shoots off great
from the sense that Bobo was not driving the exploding patterns that do not fade but per-
Taxi but being driven by it. Yet, though noth- the air and enact some sort of drama.
sist in
ing could look so mundane as a black taxi, When pressed by adults, the children utter
from the first performance this vehicle con- merely some few vague words about "The Sol-
veyed an atmosphere of tension and unease. dier" and "The Lady" and "The Man With a
I have seen it happen again and again, con- Coat." When asked if the show is funny, they
sistently: The lights do not dim, no kettledrums nod heads, blinking, as if their question-
their
roll, there is no announcement, but a curtain er is moronic.
at the side opens, and unsmiling Bobo Adults rarely discuss the performance, ex-
drives (or is driven) into the center of the cept in the safety of print. We have found it
great tent. At this moment, the audience falls convenient to assume a maximum of coinci-
silent, as if hypnotized. You feel uncertain, dence between what we have separately
slightly on edge, as if you have forgotten some- seen, for this allows our scholars to speak of
thing you particularly wished to remember. "our community," "the community." Exegetes
Then the performance begins again. have divided the performance into three sec-
Bobo does strikingly little in the course of tions (the Great Acts), corresponding to the
the performance. It is this modesty that has three great waves of emotion that overwhelm
made us love him. He could be one of us— us while the Taxi is before us. We agree that
fantastically dressed and pummeling the everyone over the age of eighteen passes in-
bulb of his little horn when confused or de- exorably through these phases, led by the mys-
lighted. When the performance concludes, he terious capacities of the Magic Taxi.
bows, bending his head to the torrential ap- The first act is The Darkness, During this
plause, and drives off through the curtain. section, which is quite short, we seem to
pass into a kind of cloud or fog, in which ev-
From Houses Without Doors by Peter Slraub, copy- erything but the Taxi and its attendant be-
right © Seafront Corporation, 1990. Used by ar- comes indistinct. The lights overhead do not
rangement with Button, an imprint of Penguin USA. lessen in intensity; they do not so much as
 /obo sobs; the £2
tears crusting on his white makeup, and blats his little
horn. the second act begins.

flicker. Yet the sense of gloom Is undeniable. Our own figure appears, radiant, on the
We are separate, lost in our separation. At edge of a field. Sometimes there is a battle;
this point we remember our sins, our mea- more often there is walking upward on a moun-
gerness, our miseries. Some of us weep, tain path through deciduous northern trees.
Bobo invariably sobs, the tears crusting on It isIreland, or Germany, or Sweden. We are
his white makeup, and blats and blats his lit- in the country of our great-great-great-grand-
hom, His painted figure is so akin to
tle ours, fathers. We belong here, At last, we are at
and ye! so foolish, so theatrical in its grief, home. It is the country that has been calling

that we are distracted from our own memo-
ries. We are drawn up out of unhappiness by
our love for this tinted waif, Bobo the benight-
ed, and the second act begins.
This section is known as The Falling be-
cause of the physical sensations it induces.
Each of us, pinnBd to the rickety wooden
benches, seems to fall through space. This
is the most literally dreamlike of the three
acts, As the sensation of falling continues, we
to us all our lives, in messages known only to
our cells. In it we are given a brief moment to
be heroic, a long lifetime to be moral. This dra-
ma elates us and prepares us for the final sec-
tion of the performance, The Layers.
The beam of light from the taxi disappears
into our eyes, like a transparent wire. When
our eyes have been filled by the light, the Taxi,
Bobo, the sweaty lady sitting on your right,
and the man in the blue turtleneck directly in

witness a drama that seems to be projected front of you, all of them disappear. The first

straight from the Taxi into our eyes. This dra-
ma, the "film," is also dreamlike. The drama
differs from person to person but seems al-
ways to involve one's own parents as they
were before one's own birth. There is some-
thing about a death, something about a fire.
sensation is that of being on the fuzzy edge
of sleep; then the layers begin. For some,
they are layers of color and light through
which the viewer ascends; for some, layers
of stone and gravel and red sandstone; an
CONTINUED ON PAGE 112
 a western The sun had not warmed the
JOURNALIST'S talesnowy ground or my frozen
OF THE toes.As the orange ball
supersecret SOVIETrose up out of the fog before
SPACEPORT us, its speed and the thun-
CALLED BAIKONUR, der with reminded us was
it it

HE'D STUDIED no natural phenomenon.

IT FROM AFAR. HOW The real sun hung high and

HE WAS THERE, cold behind us. The rising fire-

ball in front of us was a manned spaceship.

The frigid, rolling white landscape all around

was the midwinter Central Asian steppe.
After a lifetime of studying from afar.
it I

was finally standing on the ground of

nur, the supersecret Soviet spaceport, at the
'-
jnching of a Soyuz TM-9 sp
piles of photographs, books, and maps had
I

i
pored over were springing to life all around
me. Everywhere was something familiar or —
even better, something never before seen by
Westerners. My colleagues were amused as
Ibounced from window to window in the air-
BY JAMES OBERG
plane, bus, and hotel and started off in ing
'~

ights. If you didn't already know gesture for "the one that got away."
half a dozen directions at every stop. where you were, you had no business At the luxurious Hotel Baykonur, I

The whole trip had been in doubt un- asking, On the way in from the airport, saw they were ready for VIPs. The ho-
til the last moments. Bureaucratic "dif- statues and billboards announced the tel was surrounded by a security fence

ficulties"— the host agency wanted region's space heritage. We passed a with a continuously staffed guard-
—
more money weren't settled until we soaring figure of a space pilot, arms out- —
house for protection against desert no-
boarded the special charter jet at stretched a gesture of triumph, The
in mads, no doubt. Our guide, young An-
Vnukovo Airport outside Moscow for our locals, with the rich Russian sense of drey, quickly realized we were not or-
three-hour flight here. We had not ac- humor that makes ha-dsiios tolerable dinary tourists. We skipped the run-of-
tuallycome to the end-of-the-line mud privately call the statue "The Fisher- the-mill questions and homed in on the

hut mining town of Baikonur, 300 miles man": In the middle of a vast desert real meat. "Where's the giant fuel tank
to the northeast. Inan attempt to mis- they mockingly invoke the international half dome left over from the failed N-1

lead spy plane pilots, Soviet cartogra-

phers three decades ago borrowed the
name of the distant town of Baikonur for
this space center near Tyuratam.
Baikonurwas misspelled "Baykonur"
when it was taken for the spaceport.
Then arriving rocket workers began call-
ing the settlement Zarya, or "Dawn." As
itgrew it became known as Kos-
mograd — Space City. Soon the city was
officiallynamed Leninsk. The native
Kazakhs had the last laugh, however.
Baikonur means "blond chief," but Tyura-
tam carries with a hidden curse; sup-
it It

posedly means
"Cemetery of Ar- 'WHERE'S THE
rows," an inauspi-
GIANT FUEL TANK
cious name for a
rocket center. HALF DOME
During our ap- LEFT OVER FROM
proach, we spot-
ted the shallow, THE FAILED
strangled Syr Dar-
N ., M(K)N ROCKET?'
ya River, whose
waters have been WE ASKED.
diverted for irriga-
ANDREY OUR GUIDE,
tion, causing half
the Aral Sea, GROANED.
which it feeds, to
dry up. Parallel to
it ran the highway

and railway, the

main lines from
Russia to" Central
Asia. Leninsk nes-
tled in a crook of
the river. North of
it were the anten-
nas, fuel produc-
tion plants, and
launchpadsof the
cosmodrome. Thirty years earlier, pilot
Francis Gary Powers had seen all this
from his U-2 spy plane and soon regret-
ted Now we are snapping pictures
it,

out the windows and our official Soviet

escorts are just smiling.
At the airport terminal, it was obvious
we were somewhere special. There was
no place name, no elevation 620 feet
marker, no list of arriving and depart-

When it's not launching a Soyuz mission (cen-

ter, left) to the Mi r i-pace H3!:on, Baikonur's
flight contm: center (too) monitors a mainte-
nance spacewalk. Cosmonauts, such as Al-
exander Baianoir; and Anaioly Sobvyov (cen-
ter photo) begin their journey to the stars
here, while others merely try on a space
suit (center,right). Workers inspect the
manufacturing plant (right) forZenit rockets.
 —

moon rocket?" we asked.
set up in town as a band shell." Andrey
groaned as if he'd been shot.
Everyone kept his eyes peeled, but
we never found the tank, a long-
sought moon-rocket grail built in
ties. Recent Soviet newspaper ac-
counts of its location were apparently
wrong; It was actually set up about 70
"We hear it's seas phone call. The spaceships are an- signed for field —
that is, nonsterile—
other example of this: Icouldn't recall conditions, and they avoid the unnec-
the last .time they had missed an an- essary customizing of space vehicles
nounced manned launch. There was al- —
so common and profitable in the —
so a well-designed public transportation West. NASA might benefit from these les-
the Six- system, a medical team for the cos- sons, if it can overcome its "ours is
monauts, and the workers' own TV sta- best" arrogance and the predictable re-
tion and newspaper. sistance from space contractors.
We saw the secret to the USSR's re- wondered about the people who
I

kilometers north of the city as a sort of liable, economical space launchings all worked at the cosmodrome. What was
covered parking lot. Requests to visit it around us. They standardize hardware it like to live "on the shores of the uni-
drew the stock refusal: "You didn't ask and procedures, their hardware is de- verse," as their space poets lyricized?
for it on your original request, and
there's no time to change itinerary now,"
Next time for sure!
But we saw enough to satisty us. We
walked around a test model Energia
booster on its launchpad except for —
the side where its payload was mount-
ed. The assembly building for the En-
ergia superboosters was
as high as NASA's VAB at the Kennedy
Space Center, but much wider. It was
here, our guide whispered, that the
doomed moon rockets were assembled
for their ill-fated blastoffs 20 years be-
fore. The hangar for the Buran shuttles
had bays for four vehicles, including the
grounded original and the replacement
due to orbit in late 1991.
We were awakened hours before sun-
rise to attend the rollout of the TM-9 rock-
et from the assem-
bly hall and the
slow, dark rail ride
to the launchpad
two miles away.
Without the blaz-
ing lights of a
NASA rollout, only
the shadow of
something shiny
and big could be
seen at first, until
it loomed out of
the Ice fog into THE SUN
some stree: ights.
As I watched the HADN'T WARMED
rocket pass by, THE SNOWY
close enough that
its side boosters
GROUND OR MY
leaned out over FROZEN TOES.
me, sensed its
I

THE ORANGE BALL

grace and power.
At the Baikonur ROSE UP
Cosmodrome,
things didn't al-
OUT OF THE FOG
ways look fancy: BEFORE US.
the rocket work-
ers dressed like railroad men but —
(hey were efficient and reliable, like the
hotel, It was the only place in the
USSR where was able to make an over-
I

Ata
nicians mate a Photon satellite with a Soytiz
booster. Baikonur cosmonauts praciice 1 ',-
repair procedures in a giant water tank (cen-
ter, left) and prepare for the short hop to Mir
(bottom). Meanwi-i!e .workers monitor
bly of kerosene-powered Zenit rockets (cen-
assem-
I ! »'
ter, right). cleaner-burning cccsrers for an en-

vironmentaiiy co"oc'ncci space program.

100 OMNI
 No Western film crew like ours had where. A lew decades ago, only the THESE WERE The harsh cli- that simile. Their work habits are so vast- Still, they are becoming accustomed Fifteen hours before blastoff, he'd cho-

ever spent four lull days at Baikonur, so Kazakh nomads ran their sparse herds mateis compound- ly superior to those elsewhere in the to foreign visitors, with some culture sen to enshrine this scene as his last

we were able to wander the streets spon- here, usually on their way somewhere MY BROTHERS, MY ed by the gray- USSR that they are justifiably held up shock. An official assured me could I Earth sunset for half a year. As they
taneously, chatting with adults and the else. If Earth has any human settlement COLIEAGUES, nessand dullness as examples. write about anything saw but asked
I greeted us, was concerned for medi-
I

ever-curious, ever-delightful Russian chil- halfway into outer space, this is it of Soviet life. But Leninsk is susceptible to the me not to be so crass as the French jour- cal isolation. They laughed: "Germs
dren. The kids were the most outspo- Yet the isolation is not total. True, peo-
FELLOW AIMERS There are few same so vi-
fierce currents of tribalism nalistwho came for a space shot in don't stand a chance in this cold."
ken. Every "Do you like it here?" re- ple must stand in line at the post office AT THE SAME stores or restau- olently visibleelsewhere in the multina- 1988 and Ihen published muckraking ac- When he returned to this spot it
ceived the same response: "Nyet!" The for long-distance phone and
calls, rants': the schools tional USSR. Seventy-seven of the 98 counts of the "Glory and Mud of Baiko- would be midsummer. For a few final mo-
STARS, SHARING Soviet ethnic groups are represented nur." calmed him with the news that the ments he was rooted to the soil of his
adults were honest but more subtle. "It commercial airline seats are booked and hospital are I

must be hard to live here, but interest- weeks in advance. But the city strad-
ing," would volunteer. "Yes, hard" was
I dles major road and rail links,
the common answer, usually with a vacationers can reach popular resorts
friendly grin Asked if he was married, and big cities with relative ease.
one local answered with a wry panto- I know the winters in Chicago and Buf-
THE SAME overcrowded; here. The Central Asian nationalities do same journalist went to Houston in 1985 home planet. A space at the end of the
and and there are no the dirty work in town, while the Slavic and wrote derisively about the "Glory row of memorial trees was already
TRIUMPHS, THE groups are the rocket scientists. Our and Mud of Johnson Space Center." marked for digging, and in a green-
churches. In the
SAME LOSSES. early years the guide admitted to a few anti-Russian ri- The people here take measureless house, a young tree awaited.
dedicated space ots by Kazakh mobs a few years ago pride in this place. The sense of build- Later that night as strolled alone out-
I

mime of an angry wife walking out, but this place introduced me to gen-
falo, workers tolerated but insisted all was calm now. ing the future to honor the sacrifices of side the hotel, heard the throbbing of
I

back to civilization in Moscow. uine cold. Standing on the launchpad this, but now such Security concerns are top priority the past is deeply ingrained in them. the recovery helicopters idling their en-
To attract workers, salaries here are at dawn. felt my feet go numb as the
I sacrifices have be- The city is surrounded by a fence with Just east of the Cosmonaut Hotel is the gines nearby. recalled other prelaunch
I

double the national norm. Special concrete sucked the heat from them. come guard gates. Maps are nonexistent: "Avenue of Heroes," a row of desert nights at Cape Canaveral. was far

H
intolerable I

stores, the perquisite of the Communist The frost was spectacular, turning for people raising street signs, rare. We weren't the only trees, each planted after a flight by, or from Florida in the cold and snow, but
Party elsewhere, are open to all. But as small stands of trees into diamond pal- families. Gorba- ones confused by this and were often in posthumous honor of, a cosmonaut. my feelings were identical. All details

the Soviet economy has contracted in aces. Each puff of biting wind swirled chev himself came approached by lost children asking di- At the end of the walk is a fenced plat- of hardware, checklists, and security
recent years, these rewards have fad- a thousand snowflakes off the branch- to Leninsk in 1988 rections. Questions about the names of form jutting from the bluff overlooking procedures faded to insignificance.
ed. By mid-1989 the Leninsk stores, es, scintillating through the sunlight. and promised a unlabeled streets were answered with the river. I arrived there at sunset on the These were my colleagues, my broth-
like those elsewhere in the USSR, be- This was a theme of life at the cos- massive public helpless shrugs or wrong answers. And evening before blastoff. The view was ers on the same road, fellow aimers at

gan rationing rare products meat, sug- — modrome: The climate was harsh but of- works program, here there are limits to glasnosl. In one spectacular, magical. From the left the thesame tantalizing targets. Their tri-
umphs and setbacks were my triumphs
ar, butter, and laundry detergent and — ten full of unexpected beauty. In May which is obvious spot we were told not to film toward the river approached from the distant
and setbacks. Their losses diminished
one of the few advantages of living the steppe blazes with yellow tulips and everywhere: new schools, facilities, apart- west, although we saw nothing unusu- Pamir Mountains, out of sight over the
the brief green of hardy prairie grass. ments, to reduce discomfort for people al in that direction. Another time was it horizon. To the right were the city me; their achievements strengthened
The spaceport was built here be- By August the grass is baked yellow, whose attention to their jobs is crucial, made power plant was off lim-
clear the sports complex and the river prome- me. felt at home, no longer a strang-
I

its to photographs. Bus routes have nade. Across the river were a few scat- er. At last in sync with the mounting
cause was not populated, for the sim-
it but the carefully tended private gardens The Baikonur workers have a lesson
ple reason that place yield succulent tomatoes and melons. for Soviet society. The people here names such as "To the End," and at the tered buildings with the empty steppe rhythms of the spaceport, found theI

it is a terrible to
live. The summers are scorching, the win- In the autumn, herds of wild camels and work diligently and safely. In dedication train station, only two of five platforms looming beyond. few hours of sleep my anticipation al-
ters bitter, there is no water or shade, horses wander through on their way to Isensed they were akin to a medieval were and
labeled, they said only.EAST- Suddenly the TM-9 spaceship com- lowed, before the morning when the
and it is heartbreakingly far from any- winter grazing. order of monks, in the best sense of ERN and WESTERN. mander appeared, with several doctors. sun rose twice over the steppe. DQ

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 fUTIfWATTER
UFO UPDATE:
come from South Africa, as well as
Jood sightings
Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Mozambique

fsas
Hi

>Mli

w
j ja g§P j

vmmfrim,
ARJTinnATTER

ound the plug had actually the leas t. day long

"1 live all

LOREN oeen pulled. with co nputers that do

COLEMAN Office workers began to

eport the computer starting things, o
;ted
my
and unusual
only interest is

ilDMSIiCK jp on its own. It gave off an

unearthly incandescent
inthe c aim that such things
can haf pen when the power

garbled messa ges, and P actical joker has been at

even producec "groaning rk. Failing that, a likely
sounds, like sc meone in a use would be electrical
pain." Finally t ne staff lc

m
.-in "We trained a video nplace in modern
camera on the computer day ments where cables.
and night for three months."
Hughes explains. "One night trial plants are widely round.
here was a loud cracking Any such discharge could
noise. The power light came affect acomputer, and
random letters on the screen
Another night random letters might easily be expected.

;tic radiations is easy, and

it

hadn't seen it myself." field of view of the

British robotics expert —
camera." Ivor Smullen

nstitute is ske otical, to say "Big machines are the

awe-inspiring cathedrals of
„:::

.-
r —Daniel Kleppner
HAUNTED COMPUTER

an villagers
SB
who insisted
1—
from an unknown primate."
 s

w published a book about his

findingsin 1981.

Mr- ^ -

THE DEVIL DIDN'T DO IT I

single child abduction ii

U.S. I

lg had a documented lir

few instances in which I so-called Satanists a

nted overtones, "Satanism is bythereligic

'/ a symptom. r

ition, history of antisocial behavior 1960's they were against

irship." Rofhschilds. In the1980'sit people r

-scientists liefs."— Paul McCarthy

y Baker
"It is in the disorders of tt
 ;

ArUTIfUlATTER

o-page photocopy of

ated some of the aliens' genuine psychological

'tifacts. proving that the

dying visions? Morse sj

; that NDEs h
biological origin in the Sylvi-

CHILDRENS NEAR
DEATH VISIONS
lond Alternate ex pi ar
offered by Daniel Carr, a
h physician at Massachusetts

.„ . J Hospital in Seattle, he
. "If there is |
studied the phenom "

; flying
t argues, I "children may fib, but they'rf
"Like to strangle the idiot who flushed radioactive DNA into our nutrient tanks. The crop's finished for sure!"
BLURRING
recognizing that her position affords her
this :ury.

At the Stanford conference, it became

obvious that the international partici-
pants had viewpoints that varied along
cultural lines. According io Frankfurt psy-
choanalyst Margarete Mitscherlich-Niel-
son, author of The Peaceable Sex: On
Aggression in Women and Men, Ger-
man women generally feel they have the
legal structures to ensure equal treat-
ment, but more needs to be done on a
personal level. In Germany, she con-
tends, "men traditionally have had the
tenderness stripped from their person-
alities at an early age. Fear instills the
father as an idealized authority figure."
By addressing gender differences with
men, she thinks, women can begin to
change society toward more gender-
equal relations.
With the rise of a new German nation-
al identity, however, she worries that the

old myths might rise again. "Those

myths usually involve ideal roles for men
and women. In Hitler's time it was the
myth of the good soldier, the good moth-
er. The notion of identity based on bodi-
ly identity," she says, "is always .con-

nected with ideology."

Because the French thinkers placed
more emphasis on the differences be-
tween the sexes than ci d the American
theorists, with their priority on similarity
and equality, some U.S. academicians
at the conference claimed the French
"ALL GOODS WORTH PRICE CHARGED,'
were ten years behind the times. Through- is what Jack Daniel's nephew said in 1907. We're
out the meetings, Bern, for example, re-
iterated the idea that one needs to be a still saying it today.
man or woman only when reproducing;
otherwise there are no traits in mascu- Mr. Lem Motlow put this slogan on crocks and
linity or femininity worth preserving.

The French researchers emphasized jugs of his uncle's whiskey. You see, he knew our
the equality /n difference: aesthetic, sex-
ual, cultural, and erotic. Elisabeth Bad- Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey was
a French philosopher and author
inter,
of The Unopposite Sex, claims that
made with Tennessee cave spring water
there are opportunities for each sex to
"express the other half of themselves with-
and mellowed through hard maple
out losing their identities." Women es-
pecially, she thinks, have been able to
charcoal before aging. Mr. Modow
adopt male characteristics without los- knew value when he saw it. And
ing their basic femininity. Men have not
fared so well, "being caught between still today, though Jack Daniel's
an outdated model that women reject
and a model with less power and a gen- is priced above many whiskeys,
tleness they fear." Parents should allow
little children to distinguish themselves
a sip will prove its worth.
as male and female. Only by feeling se-
cure in their virility and femininity will
they be able to display both sides of
SMOOTH SIPPIN'
"We are born androgy-
their personalities. TENNESSEE WHISKEY
nous, then we assert our sex. And then
if we are secure in our identities, we be- «sc rtliiskcy - ««- i ...;.ii„ !., v. v :¥j i-, aiuof: Distilled ir.d Bctt

come androgynous again. It's uiSrrealist c •n<el Distilley, Lem Moth*. F'rc-pr »k r . fb..te I Lvnchburj (Pop 361), Tenness:

to think that paradise can be achieved

on Earth," Badinter acknowledges. "We
need several generations." DO
 SOMETHING
archaeologist I know once hinted to me
that in this part of the performance he
invariably rises through various strata of
civilizations, the cave dwellers, the hut

NEXTMONTH.GET builders, the weapon makers, the iron

makers, until he is ascending through
towns and villages that had been pack-
ed into the earth. I, for my part, seem
to rise endlessly through scenes of my

A REMARKABLE own life: I see myself playing in the

leaves, making snowballs, doing home-
work, buying a book cry out with hap- — I

piness, seeing the littleness of my own

all my

IN-DEPTH LOOK AT
figure and the foolishness of
joys. For they are all so harmless!
Then the external recurs again before
us, Bobo waves driving through the cur-
tain, and is finished.
it

In the first years, when the Taxi was

CELLULAR PHONES. ry
we did not wor-
of interest to only afew,
much about meanings. We took as it

spectacle, as revelation — a special add-

ed attraction, as the posters said.
Then the scholars of C University
issued their paper asserting that
Bobo's Taxi was the representation of
"common miracle," the sign that the
world is infused with spirit. Scholars at
(M) MOTOROLA the universities of B and Y
d Motorola are trademarks o/A-fcforojj. Inc £ IV agreed and issued a volume of essays
entitled The Ordinary Splendor.
G ,
however, and O dis-
agreed. They pointed to the sordidness

SYN CHRONICII
of the surroundings, the seedy cos-

Y* tumes of the other acts, Bobo's little

BROTHER C
HA RLES horn, his tears, the difficult benches,
and the smell of cotton candy; and
theirvolume of essays, The Blank Day,
TECHNOLOGY FOR THE EXPANSION OF AWARENESS was much given to analogies to Darwin,
Mondrian, and Beckett. Like many oth-
ers, skimmed the books but did not
I

feel that they had touched the real

Bobo, the real Taxi: Their resonant ar-
guments, phrased with such tact and
authority, battled at a great distance,
like moths bumping their heavy wings
against a screen door.- A remark uttered
by a friend of mine indicates much
more accurately than they the actual
quality of the Taxi's performance.
"I like to think," he told me, "of Bobo
before he became famous. You must
know the theory that he used to be an
ordinary man with an ordinary job. He
was a doctor, or an accountant, or a pro-
fessor of mathematics. My sister-in-law
is certain that he was the vice-president

of a tobacco company. 'It's in his pos-

ture,' she says. Anyhow, what like to I

picture is the morning that he walked

out of his house, going to work in the

ordinary way, and found the Taxi wait-
ing for him at the curb, not knowing
that it was his destiny, entirely unfore-
seen, black and purring softly, pregnant
with miracle." DO
Peter Straub's novels include Koko and Mystery.
 '

RADIO DAZE:
Give them a blank check and the imaginations
of radio astronomers start soaring

Hand NASA
comes and it
S1.3
up
billion
with the
dio astronomer Yervant Terzian.
coaxing, the radio astron-
Yet, with
PIE IN THE SKY
Hubble Space Tele- omers we spoke with revealed vi- I'd like to have a four-meter
scope. Only the Titanic suffered sions of a future that could be. [wide] telescope in near-Earth
a worse maiden voyage. With the orbit to look at wavelengths of
MOON RAKER energy have never been stud-
dreams of optical astronomers sink- that
ing, we wondered if there were Iwant a radio telescope on the ied before. It's virgin territory to as-
any dreams left in the stargazing back side of the moon. Thai's my tronomers. In fact, this summer
community. We found that imagi- dream. The reasons are simple: we did a study to see how feasi-
nation is alive and kicking in ra- On Earth we produce a significant ble a project like this would be.
dio astronomers, those pragmat- amount of radio noise with our ma- NASA reviewed our report and
ic scientists who employ dishlike chines, our thunderstorms, and said that-it looks promising.
antennas to glean information our electrical devices. On the — Samuel Gulkis, astronomer, Jet
about the heavens, ranging from moon there would be no man- Propulsion Laboratory
the molecular signatures in the at- made interference. It would be
SOUTHERN CROSS
mospheres of nearby planets to very silent.
the rotational rate of pulsars, "De- To be cost-effective, would I What I'd like to see is an Arecibo-
scribe your dream project," we choose a large crater, say, about type telescope, but bigger, any-
asked several radio astronomers, ten miles across, and use it for the .
where in the Southern Hemis-
"and don't worry about the cost." telescope's support frame. But phere. [The facility at Arecibo,
Our request elicited gleeful chuck- any telescope on the far side of Puerto Rico, consists of a fixed-
les followed b\/ pained sighs. the moon would be ideal. dish radio telescope with a sur-
"There are no unlimited funds, ex- — Yervant Terzian, professor of face area of 20 acres, The rigid
cept in our imaginations," says ra- astronomy, Cornell University configuration allows only stars in

the Northern Hemisphere to be ob-

The road to
served.] Short of tossing a tele-
recovery: Radio
scope out to the moon, this one
would be the most spectacular ra-
on trie moon,
dio telescope ever made, three or
four times bigger than Arecibo's
and on terra
telescope. observe pulsars that
I

firma could
are very faint, so the bigger the
one day expose
telescope, the better. How soon
the most
are you going to build this for me?
coveted secrets
of the universe.
— Donald Backer, professor of as-
tronomy, University of California,
Berkeley

THE BIG EASY

I can tell you what kind of tele-
scope want very easily. In fact,
!

it's a major plan of the National Ra-

dio Astronomy Observatory. I

want a ground-based array of

many telescopes to focus on ra-
dio waves in the millimeter end of
the spectrum, a wavelength
of en-
ergy that reveal details of
will
small objects. It would allow us to
examine galaxies that are well-
known to optical astronomers and
augment their observations.
— Barry Turner, astrophysicist,
the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory
Reported by Randall BlackCO
 DREAMTIME
CONTINUED FROM PI Now... Lasting Fitness
"Where does go?"
His thick finger starts from
it I
holler back. Begins with This
SriLan-
ka, skids to Madagascar and the tip of
Africa,crosses ihe South Atlantic, and
! Exercise:
stops at Tierra del Fuego. reach for I

my light pencil, find it floating above the

desk, grab it, and start tracing coordi-
nates. A moment later the strangeness
hits me. We're not in zero g. I lift the pen-
cil, lei go, and it hangs there. I glance
up in confusion.
Graham shrugs. "It happens!"
A playing card spins slowly between
us, a seven of hearts. I gape around. Dial 1-800-328-8995
The the ring of dancers is lit-
air inside
tered with floating chess pieces, feath- For a Free Brochure
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an
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cise feel of the switches yielding to my
fingers.As we swing toward the dream
path, the Eskimo woman leaves the
dance ring and waddles up to me. She
is walleyed and round, made to seem

even rounder by the on her seal- fur trim

skin dress. "Now sing," she an- I

nounces and immediately begins in a

croaking falsetto. She peers into a
drum that hangs upside down at her
waist. Presently, she breaks off the
song and cries, "They come!"
Graham stoops over her, whispering
calmly, "Catch them, Marie. Hold
them."
The drum emits a resonant thud. The
old woman cannot have struck it, for her
palms are lifted above her head. "Stay
in there!" she cries. "I need you!

Stay!" She resumes wailing, shivers,

breaks off, and again the drum
booms. Seven times this happens. I

give up trying to figure out her gimmick

and simply watch. The cabin is aswirl
with playing cards, feathers, knights,
and bishops. After the seventh boom,
she reaches into a pocket and draws
out two egg-size rocks, smooth and
gray, like beach cobbles, and begins
rubbing them together above the invert- Simply mail in your order or call Toll Free, 9 a. ., Mon.-Fri., E.S.T.
ed drum. shouldn't be able to hear the
I

sound amid the yabber of danc-

gritty Address _
ers, but I do— like bare feet scuffing Ciry_
over a sandy floor. As stare, pebbles I
Specify; Zl Men's sryie :~1
Ladies' style
ooze from her fingers and rattle into the D Check Enclosed Charge by: D MasterCard DVisa
drum, white and black ones, nearly fill- Acer. # Exp. Date _
ing it, then she quits rubbing the
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A spot ?/

S\ I

f t
-And I

thought
I knew all

~fch& lively

spots

&k#
 fierce bellow. Immediately the pebbles
rise from the drum like a swarm of
bees, coiling in the air into a shape
recognize, glanGe at my screen,
where the same teardrop shape is bob-
bing: Sri Lanka.
shut my eyes, slap a palm over my
.
I
left ear, and hiss into the intercom: "Are
"
you guys watching this 7
"Wouldn't miss a trick," says the cap-
tain. "How's the old gal do it?"
"I don't have a clue."
"It's all on tape. Hawk, baby," an en-
gineer pipes in.
"Connie, are you all right?" Jane
asks.
old gal in a rawhide dress, eyes all He squints- at the ceiling. "Must be
skewed, voice like a banshee, and you the fluorescent lights. They'd make a
I could put her on video, she's that rose look gray." His booming laugh re-
]
good." minds me of the drum- that resounded
Bent over a training manual, Sonya without being struck.
Mirek says curtly, "It's all rubbish," one Ibrush the taut strings of his weav-
of the rare times have heard her I
ing. "Pretty belt."
speak.
"It's called a rainbow snake.
"If you^d sat beside her, you Learned the pattern from Tina Cactus
wouldn't be so sure," reply. I
Owl, me Navaho sweetheart back
"Just rubbish. Hocus-pocus. Mumbo there." He swings his chin toward the
jumbo." shamans, who doze in their seats or mo-
"How do you know?" sey up and down the aisle among the
"They're all frauds. Only a child or a scuttling stewards.
savage could be taken in." Things lie down now, obedient to our
Her smugness infuriates me. simulated gravity, but remember the
—
I

take a deep breath. "I just wanted to "Which am child or savage?"

I

I air flurried with castles and jokers.

hear a sane voice," "What did you
"Two more mean about side
days," says the effects?" I
ask.
captain.

No nest
"The way
When open my I

things float," he
eyes, the pebbles says. "That hap-
have swarmed in- pens when the old
to shape of the get their pow-
fellas
Madagascar. 1
er cranked up.

is completely
know before look- Like leaves, blow-
•vhat ing when a. storm
screens will show. roars through. I've
Swaying, chant- had these blokes
ing, the Eskimo
me kitch-
woman squeezes
the gray cobbles
against her tem-
feathered singing n
en when the fridge
lifted

floor
right off the
and shim-
ples. Graham mied."
looms behind her,
arms spread. The
pebbles re-form
as the Falklands,
without it He weaves
icately,
del-
holding
the bright threads
between his thick
then as the islands lingers. My own fin-
of Tierra del Fue- gers, half as thick,
go. My hands lift
feel clumsy on the
from the keyboard, keyboard. "But
buoyant, and
must force them
back down. She
I

WILD that
an—"
Eskimo wom-

"Marie? Isn't
bellows again,
cracks the stones
together, and the
8 years
TURKEY
old, 101 proof; pure Kentucky
she a wonder?"
"What was she
doing with the
pebbles go rush- drum?"
ing back into her
-.-Fi!--Hi
;
L
:.
.;
-'r-''f i
wi "Catching her
fingers likebees helpers. She sings
into a hive. The
theirnames,coax-
drum pounds sev- es thei vith
en times, so loudmy teeth clack. The "You decide." sweet talk. Seal and raven. Whale and
oldwoman suddenly goes iimp, and Gra- The captain breaks in sharply. polar bear and arctic fox. There's sev-
ham catches her. "That's enough, you two." en altogether. Did you hear the bloody
Just as suddenly, the shamans quit glare at Sonya Mirek, at her rigid
I
great thumps as they fell into the
their dance and shuffle toward their spine, the cloth stretched like a blank drum? She catches them and gets
seats. All over the cabin there is the tick- screen across her shoulders, the them to help with the healing."
ing of coins and pencils and chessmen chopped-off hair. She never lifts her "But those pebbles?"
settling to the deck. grubbing gaze' from the manual. "That's how she does the healing."
He pauses to unsnarl the strings. "She
Objects do not float in one g. Pebbles One sandal off, one sandal on, Graham uses pebbles to make her own models
do not rush in and out of fingers, do not slumps into the seat next to me. Hoist- of places, to show how things should
swirl into the shapes of geography in ing hisbare foot onto the console, he be, as they were in the dreamtime."
the air. also know
I know this, yet I
attaches the half-woven belt to his toe "Where does she hide them? How
what. saw. The engineers review the
I
and resumes work. "You look like you does she control them?"
tape, but even in stop-motion, even could do with a cheer-up," he declares "You've got me, mate."
with digital analysis, they cannot un- "I do, do I?" "Doesn't that drive you nuts, seeing
mask the trick. "You'd never guess she "Bit gray around the gills." without understanding?"
had in her," says the captain. "Dumpy
il
"Nice of you to say so." He ties off a Ihread and severs it
 grandfather. There is only power, only

the dreaming. You speak in nouns. But

the universe is all verbs: Move, grow,

die,dance." His fingers on myforehead

Increase your hfiiiiu° range bu a factor of at least 10 x, with .

are as dry and gentle as grass. "But

BionicEar IV now you should rest, young one. You

need your sleep for the last day."
only *2925* The seventh day begins with a smoth-
*But read this ad for an even better deal! ering silence. Not a snore, not a whis-
The tiave
instructions
to
the BiemcEar IV caulion
the control on "very low" when
to
'
per, not the clink of talismans nor the
tinkle of bells.
first trythu instrumeni. It vole do not, coil
it
The dream lingers after open my
scare the daylights out of you. The thing
I

is truly
aslontshing'and in a way almost unbelie*" 1- 1 - eyes: Inside a iepee, an old woman in
until you try it and convince voin suit. Fu doeskin dress hunches over a fire and
Mimic Lnr IV in vour -hi: packet and I
I
stirs a pot with a knife. Her silver
vour ama/.cnieu! Ih.al you can hear whispered
conversations iii* to ai.) leei away, a pin drop braids hang down like vines. A baby is

10 fent away, and even hear whal people ar strapped to her back with a shawl, its
talking uhout in net room. A walk through thu-
I ii i_- I
naked feet exposed. realize they are
I

woods will rcvual birds, deer, squirrels and even nnnr n

crawlv thing-, that you never would have known aboui < i
,-„,.,

a.
;i , rr „, -;.;;/, ,, lr ..;;

..:...'.',.
_,„,,.
my feet. I am the baby. It flings out an
wise. It ri'allv increases vour range oi Ilea ring hv at lecst III -. !
''''' '"' '''" ' ;! -- aiL.'Krf.-rf.
arm, and I find my own arm twitching.
Rnlehvx fihni far !V ,omo, with kill complenienl of .n-h ,1 .=1 1 = i-,-.i.-i i ts: BeSM'ockei Clio. The old worr-an 'aise? the knife from the
b'ud-Slvle L.aiphones, and 2H' leadohoue Cord (lor TV). Batteries are not niclucled.
I

po! and glides the blade across her

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bring von this sla.llim; product for jus: il'-l '05 N.Uionai catalog houses sell iiliinbl tongue, tasting. What cooks in the pot?
identical devices for W.'f'i or more. But., we huye an even bettor deal. Bin/ neo !,:> I look and see fingers, tongues, ears,
~D".9V,i>iiti we'll tent! i/mi ,i third one Willi our eomfilimritts—absoliitch/ !~RI-I~.! L;i-
The baby wails, and I hear my own
hance your range of percc.ition, hear things \ou never heard before, and find out
tilings ve.li ceiiliin'i know otherwise. Ciet vour fry (a,' ; e. v liiimiil .nr IV today!
: voice bawling, "Grandmother!"
SLKVK.K, OKDf-K
['.IK i-'ASiL'b'l Foi ..;.. :<''.'. outers 1100 -M, l" ill Em. iC-r.ird
Yanked out of the dream, catch the I

TOLL FREE (800) 882-3050 mr Wholesale/Premium Mai d.Vi S-li- reverberations of my cry in the still cab-
.570 nr write him at the addt
24 hours a day, 7 days a week in. put a hand to my lips. Too late. The
I

shamans begin to rustle. From his bed

in the first row, Graham flinches upright.
His blanket siips away, revealing a
brawny chest matted with blond hair,
"What is it?" he mumbles.

"Nothing," L say hastily. "Only a

dream."
with bis teeth. "Used
Not anymore. to. on my lashes. Through my earphone "Uh-oh." He plants his big feet on the
Me rnum told me, 'Just because you've come the excited voices of the crew. deck, rubs his eyes. "You'd better tell
got two periwinkle eyes and a lolloping The loudest is Sonya fvlirek, screeching, it to me."

great brain, don't expect you'll twig ev- "Savages! Savages!" "It's stupid."
erything under the sun.' And you The herder of reindeer completes his "Come on, then. Out with it."

know, she's righl. The longer I'm around
these old bastards, the more they sur-
prise me."
The shamans dictate three paths on
day six. do my job. navigate. repeat
I I
the coordinates in my
song. The antlers shrivel back to his I shake my head. "No, It's ugly."
skull,. He stumbles away, dazed, sup- A deputation of shamans clatters up
ported by Graham. The snow melts, leav- the aisle, led by the gangly figure of
ing fat drops on the monitors, on my Luke Easterday. "You must respect
sleeves. count them. fumble at the
I I your dreams, missy," he says.
I dials, the cool gauges, row after row. I They fix their ancient glittering eyes
head, clinging to forget the procedures. on me. As if compelled, describe the I

the litany ot numbers. With each path, Hands settle on my shoulders, and tepee, the old woman, the pot.
the dancing becomes more delirious. under their calm grip feel myself trem- I By the end of my recitation, the sha-
The cabin fills with scudding shoes, bling. "Easy now, missy. Easy." mans are huddled around Graham,
tape cassettes, candy wrappers. The twist round to see Luke's dusky, tat-
I who translates my words with gestu res.
dancers straddle their drums, riding tooed face, which is framed by the squir- There a sizzle of whispers, an agita-
is

them like horses, jumping, whirling. rel tails dangling from his bowler hat. tion of beads, from which Luke emerg-
Their energy is phenomenal. When the He is ancient, ages beyond me. let my I es to announce gravely, "A black sha-
Pygmy croons his dreamsong, the bang- head fall against the yellow zigzags of man has come to you, Constance."
ing of his tiny foot on the deck sends a lightning on his chest, and whisper, I Luke himself is the blackest man I

tremor through the ship. Luke and Gra- "I'm scared." have ever seen, an ebony totem. "She
ham hold on to him, yet in his ecstasy "I know," he murmurs. "The Old One was red," I Insist, realizing what I met
tie shakes them like rag dolls. The nut- is powerful, the One who dreams the uni- in sleep only as say the words, "a I

brown sorceress from Borneo sidles up verse. We

catch a grain of that power Sioux woman, My ancestor."
to the console for her song, claps in a in our hands, we squeeze a pinch of it The wizened aboriginal utters her
staccato rhythm, and butterflies burst in our electric boxes, and we think we name: "Hawk Soars. It is not her skin
from her mouth. They flutter about the are gods! Hah! The Old One is to us that is black, missy, but her power."
cabin, their wings brushing my cheek. as the ocean is to a drop of spray. You "She's evil?"
I
navigate. I recite numbers. When the are wise to.be frightened, missy." "Not evil. She is black because she
Lapp sings, the antlers on his head Shuddering, as after a long cry, say 1 calls up spirits from the underworld, as
start to grow, branching until the tips -to him, "I don't believe in some white- a white shaman calls down spirits from
rake the ceiling, and the branches fill bearded grandtather on a throne run- the sky."
with sparrows. Snow falls inside -the ning the universe." am suddenly repulsed by this tat-
I

ring of dancers, lacy flakes that hang "Neither do I, There is no throne, no louoa shadow and '.lie- leathered cho-
122 OMNi
 "No, I've almost got it." Shaken, I re-
peat my calculations.
Luke says, "Missy, the grandmoth- if

er comes back, you must tell me, and

Voic I will deal with her,"

do that," reply brusquely.
"I'll

"Whatever you say."

I

"And if she offers you food, don't eat.

One taste, and you will never return."
touch the I

keys with exaggerated care, as if I

Plane. were disarming a bomb. Satisfied at

last, notify the captain. "Ready when
I

you are, sir."

"Good," he says. "Let's get this over
with so we can go back downstairs."
There's never been anything like it on Earth.
My right ear fills with the sober dia-
logues of the crew. No wisecracks
lie Earth is over four billion Jr .. -
from the engineers, no sarcasm from.
Captain Lopez, who issues orders like
years old. And now she has a man indifferent to the glory of a han-
dlebar mustache. Jane plods grimly
through a systems check, as though
she has a bullet clamped between her
teeth. Sonya Mirek makes no sound. I

do not confess to them that on my

screens the earth has become a stew
of human giblets.
My left ear fills with the racket of the
Exclusively, on shamans, who form their motley ring

H£30 and start prancing. They are painted

even more gaudily for the occasion, es-
October 1>19 pecially about the eyes, and they bris-
8:05 PMet tle with even more feathers, more clat-
tering ornaments. As they circle, float-
ing debris thickens the air. My skin tin-

gles. Once again wearing the grass-

green caftan with the rusty eye, Graham
rusand the lummoxy Australian who gleaming teeth. The monitors are boil- settles down in the chair next to me.
mimes our conversation with fingers ing pots,and the landmasses are kid- The newly woven belt inscribes a rain-
like pure white, sup-
ropes. "You're all I
neys, tossing in green
livers, hearts, bow at his waist. The playfulness has
pose? You're angeis? You deal only in oceans of broth. bite my lip to keep I
gone out of him, Now he is watchful,
goodness?" from screaming. like a lion tamer with the gate shut and

"Oh, no, missy. We are neither white his cage full of beasts.
nor black. We speak with all powers, The shamans prop a white-barked sap- Although within arm's reach of one
above and below." ling on my console, its trunk clamped another, we must yell to be heard above
His gay old eyes cut through my fu- in a three-legged stand like those my the drums and bells and moans, "Hold
ry. gather myself, recalling my place,
I parents used for CI' 'isimas trees, its tip tight!" he shouts.
my job. These are witch doctors. They grazing the ceiling. Seven lithe I am clutching the edge of
find that I

gnaw bones in hovels. Whaf do care I branches, tufted with dry leaves, curve the desk, my knuckles white from the
how they interpret the babble of out from the trunk. pressure. There is a ceremonious gai-
dreams? speak in a monotone: "Con-
I "It's a birch," Graham says. "A holy ety in the shamans, and yet, as they

sult whoever or whatever you want. tree in cold country," leap and cry, the atmosphere in the cab-
That's your business. Just tell me "What's it for?" I ask. in grows tense. The seven old women
where to fly." Overhearing me, Luke solemnly spiral in toward the center, nearly brush-
There is a scuffling of moccasins, points to his navel. "The doorway," he ing me as they pass, and then as if on
high-heeled boots, bare feet. The sha- explains. "The ladder." signal they all sit down, forming a small-

mans wrap Graham in a scarf of whis- "Where's supposed to go?"it er ring insice the wheel of dancing men.
pers. He gives me a rueful look. "Trou- "Deep," says the old man. "High. The The women begin slapping their
ble is, Connie, you may be dangerous." roots go down to the underworld. The thighs, and the men. as though crazed
"Because of a dream, for God's branches reach the sky." by the sound, begin leaping higher,
sake?" erupting with cries. The Bushman stag-
"Because that knife-happy ancestor Our final path is a circumpolar orbit gers out of the ring, throws back his
of yours is boiling mad." that will sweep out a sinuous curve over head in a strangled wail, and flames
"About what?" the spinning earth. punch the coordi- I gush from his mouth.
Graham scratchesthe fur on his nates cautiously, and yet in my cross- lose track ot my hands and only re-
I

chest. "History, wager." I'd checks find three mistakes, glitches

I alize they are balled up in front of my
"She means us harm," Luke insists. that would have led us astray by sev- eyes when Graham pries them away.
"You may lead us on the wrong path. eral degrees, enough to spoil their oc- "He's all right!" Graham assures me,
Not because you wish to, but because cult plans. look up and find Luke's
I but with an edge of uncertainty. let him I

she makes you." flnty black eyes and Graham's larky keep my fists in his palms.
"That's ridiculous!" I turn for reassur- blue ones intently watching me. The slapping of thighs accelerates.
ance to my console. The switches are "Prohlem?" says Graham. The men cry sharply, as if in pain, and
124 OMNI
 in their frenzied circling they begin to
glow red with heat, their chests and fore-
CABLE TV. CONVERTERS
heads burning like embers. A head-
FORGET WHAT dress crackles into flames. Where are
the alarms? Why don't the extinguish-
YOU KNOW ers spurt foam? The cabin reeks of
singed fur. The blood slams in my
ABOUT ROLE head; my muscles twitch like frying
meat. Needing to drive some nail
PLAYING through Ihis chaos, count the gray- I

GAMES! beards as they wheel past. Only nine,

yet they seem like a mob. count the I

The World's Unbound seated crones, whose arms thresh the All Jerrold, Oak, Hamlin, Ze-
Series by Compass Rose air, beating, beating. Eight? Mo, that's nith, Scientific Atlanta, Mag-
Games, Inc. the next wrong, There should be seven. I count
is
again. Eight.
navox and all specialized ca-
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Suddenly, the crone nearest me ble equipment available for
playing games!
rises, her face hidden beneath a bird shipment within 24 hours.
You tel! the story! mask, an beak where her nose
iron
For fast service MC/VISA or
should be, silver braids (railing down
You decide how complex C.O.D. telephone orders ac-
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or simple the plot!
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"Take us home, daughter," the old
It is easy to get started -
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more Flexible than other
over stones, the only sound hear. I ENDS. Send self-addressed
games. "Where, Grandmother?" The bird Stamped envelope (600
No complex equipment mask, the iron beak, and peeping
for Catalog.
my
i

child fill sight.

or pieces to buy.
• Everything you need
included!
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World's Unbound through
"You know the place." She rakes a
is
fingernail across my brow.
An image rises in me of barren
crags, d.ry, compounded of dust, and
the moon caught in the limbs of a leaf-
less tree. do know the place— the
I

our first release.

Black Hills, where Hawk Soars hid
The Attoti Stone from the long knives. The old Woman

It is science-fiction adventure
nods. "Fly us there," she says.
My hands are snagged, but rip
OMNI
CAPSULES
I

at its best! them Someone grabs at my

free. 1E
wrists, a hulking man, clumsy, a huge
• Experience high adventure!
eye staring from his chest, and fling I

• Encounter alien cultures! him away with a sweep of my arm. My

fingers find the keys. Before can I

Unravel the mystery of

punch in coordinates for the Black
The Attoti Stone! Hills, another hand jerks me around. It

is a black scarecrow, lightning streaks

Enclosed is my check or money on his belly, scars on his face. raise I

order for $ Send me . my arm to hurl him aside, but he does

.games at $29.95 each plus not budge. He grips my shoulder and
$3.00 shippinyand handling. (Mis- bends down as though to kiss me, his
souri residents add 5.975% tax) withered lips almost touching mine, but
instead of kissing he puffs air on my
My Mastercard/ Visa Number is cheeks, left cheek, right, and sudden-
ly the noise of the dancers comes crash-
ing in on me again, my vision widens
to take in the cabin, the chanting wom-
en, the whirling men, and see Graham
Now the magazine of the future can be
kept for the future. Store your Issues of
OMNI in a new Custom Bound Ubrary Case
made of block simulated leather, It's built to
last, and it will keep 12 Issues in mini
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with the gold OMNI logo, and in each case
there Is a gold transfer for
I
recording the date.

with an aster shed expression picking Send youi check or money order
himself up from the floor, and my ($0.95 each; 3 for 524.95; 6 for $45.95)
postpaid USA orders only. Foreign
mouth fills with the tinny taste of fear. orders odd $ .50 addirionol for
1

Still bending, so that his lips are

my ear, Luke says sternly, "She

next to
To: OMNI MAGAZINE
came, and you did not warn me." Jesse Jones Industries, 499 E. Erie Ave.

Mail to: Compass Rose Games. Inc.

"I didn't realize who it was." Phila, PA 19134

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Luke puffs again on my cheeks. "It Or mail your order, cleorly showing your
(Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery)
account number and signature. Pa.
is true, missy."
add 6% sales tax.
"But why? Why would she hurt us?" SATISFACTION GHAtANiF-D
"Because she doesn't want us to
 sing the earth back to health. She toward the rumpled quilt of the Hima- tells me. "Be still. Be fruitful."
wants to hasten the end, to wipe out the layas. The sight is more familiar than my Pebbles pour from her fingers, rat-
two-leggers, to clear the [and of those own bed. Do I carry the earth inside tling on the counter, and my heart
who poisoned it." me? knocks in sympathetic rhythm. Nimbly
"She'd condemn everyone, even the "While I'm gone," Luke tells Graham, the fat old woman clambers up my
innocent?" "you must not let Constance use her ma- back, her weight no more than a tod-
"The innocent would be reborn on a chine." dler's, then she balances on my shoul-
new earth. Her own tribe would be re- "How'll I stop her?" ders, grabs the birch sapling, and
born." He says this with the passion of The old-man plucks the. rainbow belt climbs on up, stepping from branch to
a man who has been tempted by the at Graham's waist. "Catch her with this." slender branch. Instead of banging in-
same vision, The arms of the women blur as they to the cabin roof when she reaches the
Graham slouches up, rubbing his pound their thighs. The men who strad- tip of the tree, she keeps going, van-
ribs. "What did you hit me with'?" dle the drum horses are flying, and the ishing upward as though erased from
wasn't Constance," Luke says. "It
"It other men only touch the floor
once ev- head to moccasined foot. In a moment,
was her ancestor. The black shaman." ery turn or so, as if they swing at the the sapling is bare.
count the chanting crones. Seven.
I
ends of cords twirled from the center I
am too astonished to be afraid. Gaz-
None wear a bird mask or carry a pa- of the ring. There is a banging on the ing at the tree, I feel again the child-
poose. stare at my hands, then stuff
I
hull and the squeal of tortured metal. In light pressure of feet along my spine.
them under my arms, shivering. the earphone hear Sonya Mirek shriek-
I
Up clambers the woman from Borneo
"ShB will try again," Luke warns. ing and the engineers shouting and the amid a cloud of butterflies, the willowy
The dancing men, the drumming wom- captain bellowing for silence. The ship branches scarcely giving under her,
en put out a fierce heat, yet cannot I isbreaking up, feel certain, yet am
I I and she, too, disappears, as though
stop shivering. oddly serene, caught in the eye of the passing through a door in the ceiling.
"Why doesn't Connie move to the shamans' hurricane. One by one, the other women follow her
cockpit?" Graham suggests. Graham watches me, the belt in his up my back, onto my shoulders, up the
The squirrel tails bobble as Luke fist like a dog's leash. sapling into thin. air. The sound of their
shakes his head. "We need her to help From the inner hoop, the Eskimo wom- clapping vanishes with them. I glance
us climb the tree. Even here in the sky, an struggles upright, then stumps over at Graham, who never takes his eyes
we need the earth under our feet, and to me on her fat legs. She puts a hand off me. "They know what they're doing!"
Constance holds the earth inside her." on my neck and gently pushes me for- he says. The sunlight of Australia has
"How?" ask, startled. I
ward, and bend easily, until my
i drained from his face.
Luke points at my screens. "It pours cheek rests on my crossed forearms The hull groans. The panicky voices
in through your eyes." atop the console. of the crew swell feel
in my ear. I

I look and see India spreading away- "You are the earth, young one," she mighty, huge, gathered about a center

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I
 Idid not know was there. could hold 1
backwards an instant before the wings
the ship together with my own gravity. whoosh together.
The Pygmy skips in from the wh rling "Daughter!"
ring of men, stamping his feet, and yet "Grandmother!"
when he pounces on my back he is light- Ican no longer see her. I wail, claw-

FIT er than a cat. Up he goes, vaulting ing at my

the rainbow snake
belly, at

from my shoulders to the sapling and that binds me, and tumrjle back into I

then on up from branch to branch, Graham and he slams into the console
through the invisible gate, dragging af- with an oomph and keeps on tighten-
ter him the black pearls of his toes" ing the belt until I cry out.
Next comes the antlered herdsman, "Connie," he hisses, "come out of it!"
then the Siberian in his clanging suit of "It hurts! Ah, it hurts!"
copper amulets, then the immense Mon- "Is she gone? Are you back?"
SERIOUS ABOUT THE golian in iron breastplate and chains, I jerk my head up and down, sobbing

WEATHER? NOW YOU CAN heavy enough to crush me, and. yet I for breath.
barely feel his ponderous tread, then af- He loosens the belt a little. "Lord,
AFFORD A PERSONAL ter him scramble the other shamans, you're strong when she gets in you."
WEATHERSTATION! each lighter than the one before, until Between sobs, say, "You should I

their feel along my spine are those of have let me go with her."
skittering mice. As each man vanishes, "And kill my wizards? I'd sooner throt-
the cabin grows quieter. Last of all tle you."
comes Luke in his bowler hat and As though to demonstrate his willing-
onlv:i!-WI
• WIND SPUD ragged tuxedo pants, a loose-jointed ness, he grabs my neck and twists me
• TFMPtKAIL'RE doll. As he clambers up the tree he. around and shoves me against the con-
calls back, "Don't move, Constance! sole. "Now put your head down, just
You're the threshold! Mind her, Gra- like before."
• 14-DAY MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE ham!" Before the echo dwindles away, I fight back, thrashing, flailing, my
he is gone. hopes still tangled around that radiant
DIGITARWEATHERPRO The hull ceases to groan. The crew bird woman. There is a sharp high whis-
WEATHER STATION; ONLY $1S9! hushes. In the bewildering silence the tle, and suddenly the cabin goes dark,
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M-F 7AM-S:S0 PM Pacific Time
over a wooden bridge. Will it break? out.The stewards grind to a halt in the
'-Daughter," says a creek-water gabble pouts from the ear-
aisle. Startled

j.465
TugTtar'
DIAKI O AVE l-IAHVARD, CA 94545
voice behind me.
I liftmy head and feel the prickle of
phone, Sonya Mirek screeching, the cap-
tain snarling questions, then static,
hot skin as my cheek peels away from then dead air. The screams keep gush-
my sweaty forearm. ing from the cockpit, raw tearing
"Hold still, Connie!" Graham's voice sounds of a mind coming apart at the
is muffled, as though he shouts seams, so loud they reach me through
the bulkhead, then hear a scuffle, bod-
fWant to through layers of cloth. "You'll trap
them out there! They won't be able to ies thumping against the hull, then noth-
I

brush up come back!" ing but my own gasps. The lights flare
as the backup power'kicks in, then dim
His hand on me is a fly shrug off.
on a "Grandmother," whisper, Her bright-
I
I

and go out. We are left in utter silence,

ness dims the air. The bird mask is utter darkness.
foreign thrown back and her face is webbed in Her strength is in me. The ship may
language? wrinkles, the mouth cinched tight with die, but can soar without it. snatch
I

the rainbow snake from my waist and

I

bitte'riess. lor silver oraics are gleam-

With Audio-Forum ! ing filaments. In place of arms she has fling it away. smack the hand loose
I

intermediate and advanced materials, from my neck. could snap this man
russet wings, folded now, and her toes I

it's easy to maintain and sharpen your like a twig under my foot. He pants, his
are talons. The papoose, mouthing a
foreign language skills. voice gone small and fearful. "Please,
hunk of meat, gazes over her shoulder
Besides intermediate and advanced with my face, a gossamer child, spun Connie, please! Put your head down,
audio-cassette courses —
most devel-
from pure light. or you'll kill them, You're the threshold,
oped for the U.S. State Dept.— we hawk
"Come away, daughter," the the stepping-stone."
offer foreign-language mystery dramas,
woman murmurs. In the, darkness hear the scrape of I

dialogs recorded in Paris, games, music,

is a resistance in me, but it
There talons on the floor, feel air move from
and many other helpful materials.
And if you want to learn a neivlanguage, gives way before the glare of this visi- the slow beating of wings.
tor. gather myself to rise, ignoring the She waits for me. can eat the
we have beginning courses for adults
I
I

muffled voice, the clumsy hands that bloody meat, crawl onto her shoulders,
and for children.
We offer introductory and advanced paw at me from behind. become the papoose, rise or dive with
materials in most of the world's lan- "Come, child, will take you to the I
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soul's country." She opens her wings. here in this life, puny, mortal, and walk
The undersides are creamy, softer on my own legs.
than pillows. I stare into the emptiness, unable to
I
am drawn to my feet. The papoose see her. Why doesn't she grab me,
offers me the chunk of raw meat, from force me to go with her? Why does she
which a bloody eye stares. reach for I leave me this choice? Seconds pass,
stepping forward, yielding, and the bubbles swelling and bursting,
it,

wings curl toward me, wafting air

like
"Grandmother?" I whisper. No an-
Room 1907, 96 Broad Street,
against my face, and something slith- swer. sniff but cannot smell her, can-
.Guilford, C T Qfi437 (203) 453-9794/
I

ers around my waist and am yanked I not smell the meat she offers. open my I
 —

IfUTERVIEUU
monkey, as Dorr-er has cone, seems ex-
tremely arbitrary. But there is another ap-
proach: to study so-called "human ex-

IF YOUR IQ periments of nature," people exposed

to an incorrect prenatal hormone envi-
—
ronment with lasting results.
Omni: One such "experiment" is

B'/zOF'iOF'/ioOF called the testicular feminizing male.

What is the TFM?

Gorski: Here you have a genetic male

whose testes, although undescended,

10,560, RERDOH. stillproduce normal amounts of testos-

terone. But the TFM has genetically
lost the androgen receptor all over the

If your IQ measures at or above 132* you're —

body including the brain. This genet-
test to see whether ic male cannot respond to testosterone.
Mensa material. Take our at-home
you may qualify tojoin, or let our brochure tell you if So what is the phenotype [external char-
acteristics] of this individual? Female!
you've already qualified. In Mensa, intellectual stimu-
Female external sex organs, breasts,
lation is a mathematical certainty.
body fat distribution. The internal sex or-
gans, however, are not female. Early in

fetal life the testes produce another

hormone, Miillerian due! inhibiting fac-
suppresses development
tor [MIF], that
of such female organs as the uterus
Send me the Mensa brochure.
I'll

is
try the at-home
$12.00 (check or
test,

money
Enclosed
order in I
mensa
V The High IQ Society.
and Fallopian tubes. MIF is not a ste-
roid and doesn't need the androgen re-
ceptor to operate. Apparently MIF is nor-
U.S. funds only, please).
mally secreted in the TFM, because
Send MENSA, Dept. OMOO, 2626 El
those who function sexually as women
lu:

often have to go to a clinician because

1 "Stanford Binet Te5t. Form L-M. See brochure for others.
intercourse is painful. That's because
the deepest part of the vagina devel-
mouth, feel on my tongue the pulsing frame of Luke Easterday, who eases ops from the Miillerian duct, which
down from branch to branch, steps on bolh sexes possess in early embryonic
air, taste nothing.
"They'll die, Connie," the man cries. my back, and hops to the floor. "You lifeand which is suppressed by MIF.
''We'll all die." frightened us, Constance!" The human male testes also normal-
Is this how it would be in the soul's "Leave her alone," Graham says. ly secrete small amounts of estrogen.

country, stripped of my senses, the "We couldn't open the door!" Because the TFM can't respond to tes-
doors of the body gummed shut? 1 "Leave her alone, damn it! Can't you tosterone during the prenatal period of
close my lips to the spirit meat. close I see it tore her up?" sex differentiation, he develops as a fe-

my heart to the hawk woman's call. In The old man grunts. The other sha- male. And at puberty, when these tes-
the darkness, the silence, feel anoth- I mans climb down the tree and over my tes become active, he responds to the
er power in me, spinning, swelling. I do back, each one heavier than the one be- increased quantity of estrogen, devel-
carry the earth, it turns my belly,
in curv- fore, the noise of their trinkets flooding oping breasts and becoming sexually
ing sheen of water, hump of dry land, the cabin. They encircle me, charged active as a female. These individuals
a kicking child inside me. a plunging lov- with triumph from their journey, chatter- rarely know they are male. They're
er. Flesh of. my flesh. At last choose. I ing in their strange, murmurous lan- born looking like girls, are treated by par-
"I love this place, Grandmother," I guages. Graham translates for me, strok- ents and peers as girls, and so act like
whisper into the dark. "Let me stay ing my hair. They have spoken to the girls. They are both phenotypically and

here. Let me live." powers, tuned the cosmic strings, psycnosexualiy female.
There is a rush of air, the sharp high sung the melodies of dreamtime. Have Omni: In a sense, the opposite side of
whistle of a hawk, and she is gone. they truly? believe; doubt. When go
I
I I the coin is the female with congenital
The cabin lights come on, the venti- home, back to my true home on that adrenal hyperplasia [CAH],
lator hisses, stewards purr, monitors miraculous, exquisite planet, must I
Gorski: These genetic females lack one
glow, and the earphone sputters ques- walk in the woods, wade in a creek, or two key enzymes- that convert andro-

tions:What the hell happened? How the study the animals, to see the earth hasif gens [from the adrenal glands] to Cor-
helldo know? I
begun to heal. tisol, an adrenal hormone. So the adre-

From the clash of voices learn that I No longer a stepping-stone, rise I

nals keep on turning out masculinizing
the ship is unharmed, but Sonya broke and stretch. gaze at the spot where
I
hormones. These girls are born with
down and had to be doped. take no I the hawk woman stood in all her splen- —
and if the situation isn't corrected
comfort in her breaking, dor. Two long russet feathers lie .on the develop masculine characteristics: en-
bend over the console, lay my we!
I
deck. pick-them up and place one be-
I
larged clitoris, hirsutism, male shape

cheek on my crossed arms. weep and I

hind each ear. Noticing, Graham and muscle pattern. A number of un-
weep. Graham strokes my hair, 'flashes me the bright semaphore of his corrected girls were thought to be
Presently, a dusky foot appears at grin. ache, swollen with new powers,
I
boys. Nevertheless, at puberty (hey do
the tip of the sapling, then two bony unsure what I have gained, what ovulate and menstruate.
shanks, then the entire scarecrow lost. DO Many CAH girls are identified just at-

193 OMNI
 —

ter birth.And by giving the missing moved. Is this the appropriate treat-
hormones, you can easily eliminate the ment? wish knew. I i

excess androgen. But these adrenal an- Omni: How might a fetal hormonal im-
drogens may have affected the sexual balance alter sexual orientation without
differentiation of the brain during fetal affecting bodily development?
Susan Baker and Anke Ehrhardt
life. Gorski: We suspect there may be sep-
studied girls who were corrected short- arate critical periods for development
ly and found them to have sub-
after birth of various brain structures, sexual be-
tle masculine traits later in life. As ad_- havior, hormone feedback regulation,
renal-hyperactive girls, they were often and all the outward manifestations of sex-
tomboyish but still saw themselves as uality. have no problem accepting
I

girls. As women, they are not merely dis- that a temporary fluctuation of steroid
interested in children but show an ac- hormones — via stress to the mother, in-

tiveaversion to infant care. Are they "tom-
boys" as adults? It's hard to tell, be-
cause a tomboyish woman may be
more inclined toward masculine dress
and hairstyle, but she probably will not
want to play baseball or wrestle with the
guys. Masculine behavior is more ac-
ceptable in a woman than feminine be-
havior in a man.
gested drugs, or just normal biological
variability— might affect one aspect of
brain development, but the body and
everything else in the brain would be
normal. Take the very macho, muscu-
larly developed gay guy. We have no
idea what his hormonal levels were like
as a kid. To some people, gay or
straight, male or female, a muscular guy

Omni: What about individuals with 5- is very attractive. Some gay men work

alpha reductase deficiency in child- — to make their bodies conform to this sex-
hood they're treated as girls, because ually attractive ideal.
that's what they look like, but who sud- Omni: Why hasn't Dorner or others
denly grow a penis at puberty?' looked at ratios of testosterone and es-
Gorski; Testosterone can be converted trogen in homosexual men?
into estrogen. The enzyme 5-alpha re- Gorski: Dorner certainly has a hypoth-
ductase transforms testosterone into an- esis to defend. But sure, hormone ra-
other hormone, dihydrotestosterone tios are crucial in both sexes. And if you

[DHT]. In human males DHT, not tes- are going to prevent homosexuality,
tosterone, is primarily responsible for why limit to males? If you found high-
it

the masculinization of the genitals. Ge- er levels ofwhatever androgen in fe-

netic males with normal testosterone-
producing testes, but unable to make
DHT, are born looking like girls and are
raised as girls. At puberty when
tes start to produce high levels of tes-
tosterone, they do masculinize to a de-
male fetuses, they'd theoretically have
a greater chance of becoming lesbians.
So why not treat these girls with pro-
the tes- gestins? Maybe because if you bungled
the dose and timing, you'd "unfortunate-
ly" make them even more masculine!

gree, perhaps because a greater quan- Omni: Dorner not only feels that he is
tity of testosterone over a longer time capable of correcting homosexuality
functions as a smaller amount of DHT but feels a strong need to.
over a relatively brief fetal period.
Those producing high levels of testos- CREDITS
terone actually change .from girls to page 6 center,
ci;iiiiv,.vis!ict..
men! In the Dominican Republic there 6, Arthur Grace/S
.!.,

jage 14 lop, Patrick

is a group [about 20] of these individu-
Don Ray; page
als. Most have become men, suggest-
it.

lage 22, S peel rum; page

ing that the fetal hormone environment
did masculinize their brains. In psycho- :.
'
uMS .v; (.: :
--.- ;-.-.--
:
:":: <;,;;:; :'-.
"j-s: :'..:
r
ernandes; page 3J, Micriee Burae 'A M.J
logical interviews, many claim they "al- lage 35 top, Tom DiPace/Focus On Sports; page 35
ways knew" they were male. jofiom, A. ZhigailOT/Scvloto; page 36 top, Robert
<rtowles:' Photo Re searchers; page 38, Nicholas De-
On the surface, this phenomenon rarf/Bruce Coleman; page A0 top, Dsii Moi-. page .

10 bottom, Tom McHugh/Photo Researchers;

people who are raised as girls but be- 3ages59,60top,and61 top, £ 1 98S, Computer Craa-
come men psychosexually suggests — ions Corporation; pages 60 and 61 bottom, f-gmes
'ram the film Oiymp'atf. St 1972 and 1989, Con
that fetal hormones (or perhaps those ........... : ., ,. .
.,

'
'„,-,(. :
;;..;. :;: -.; r,. !>::,;,; u '
!Op r;:;M i:!.:li
at puberty) play an important role in psy-
jv Peter Moore; naqe 82 top, John Seakwooi
chosexual differentiation. There are, how-
ever, several controversial questions
still unanswered. Were these individu-

als actually raised as girls? Did they be-

come males psychosexually because TASS'Sovfoto. TA.f-- (!.:,,:.<,!

of a prenatal hormone effect, or did page 9B bottom, TASS/SovtatD; page 1 00 top, T

they just adjust their adult psychology
to' the fact that their bodies and genita-
Sovfoto; page 100 center, left to right, T/.__.
Sovfoto, TASS.'Sovloto; page 100 hottom, TASS/
Soutata; page 102, TASS/Sovfoln; page 1 05 top cen-
Superstock; page 105 top left and hottom
ter.

lia masculinized? In other parts of the right,Tim White; page 106 top. La: a- Coismar:
page 106 Bottom, Steven Hunt; page 107, H. R.Qig-
world, it's only those who become
'
most malelike in physical appearance
who become males. In this country, how-
ever, when this syndrome is detected,
the "gfrls" usually have their testes re-
Gorski: This is feasible only during fe-
tal life and has to involve
Since differen-
sis or other fetal testing.
tiation ofthe brain and genitalia is oc-
curring by the same process, you
could intervene toward the end of the
second month. But should you? Most
parents might simpiy want to prevent
their offspring from being homosexual
or transsexual. But I'm not sure they
have that right. Behavior alone is not a
disease. suspect those people who so
I
vehemently oppose abortion might be
delighted with a Dorner-style "correc-
tive intervention."
And what kind of proof can we have
that thebaby would become gay? Ob-
viously,we don't have any.
interview comes out I'll
three types of letters. One: "My son or
daughter had 'an accident' and is gay;
what can or should do?" Two; "I'm I plied to future sex-change operations?
gay, and thank you for showing it's not
my fault." Three: "I'm gay, and how
dare you try to tell me it wasn't my
choice?' Can't we accept that many peo-
ple are perfectly happy being gay?
So back to it: If we could prevent ho-
mosexuality, should we?
because we don't know
sex hormones on aspects of brain de-
velopment and function, such things as
creativity or talent.
Some people, Geschwind
.;<-
ular,have argued that the more lateral-
amniocente- ized, "masculinized" brain is a definite
survival advantage. Well,- in our soc-
ietyyou can succeed professionally by
being very good in a very limited way.
Perhaps for the genius at money man-
agement or chess, "the more lateralized
the better" holds true. But what about
success and satisfaction in life,
are harder to grade on test scores? In
crsaiive endeavors, the more lateralized
brain might be a distinct disadvantage.
Many creative people have been gay.
Would we lose that? Sex and sexuality
are private and special, so we
not even be dealing with what other peo-
ple think of our practices or preferenc-
When this es. Though may be a bit of a hyp-
I
get basically ocrite, because I'm pleased my three
children seem quite normal.
Omni: How could your findings be ap-
Gorski; We transplanted the male SDN
into the female rat brain. These trans-
plants survived well and enhanced
[male sexual] behavior, So you can say
that one can change sexual behavior
with a brain implant. For the human
I don't think so, male transsexual wanting to become fe-
the effects of male, it's fairly simple surgery to make
effective female genitalia and permit a
normal sex life, other than pregnancy.
But remember, in the transsexual the
in partic- brain is okay; it's the genitals that are
DNVIDED
THE MOST DAZZL NG V FWS OF
THE FUTURE!
From the pages of the world's leading science
magazine. The excitement of a look into the
future brought to life in two new videos from...
onnrui
Credit card holders call toll-free:
"wrong." Now, suppose you're a female
in a body with a male brain, or you
claim that's how you feel. The current
reconstruction of male genitalia is rath-
er inefficient. It doesn't work erection-
wise. Should we then entertain the idea
of changing the brain of that female
who wants to be a male, into a female
which brain that doesn't want to be a male?
Omni: How might sex hormones cause
brain areas to differ in each sex?
Gorski: We've shown that only half the
neurons present at birth in the female
SDN are alive on day seven. Sex ste-
should roids affect how many neurons end up
in this part of the adult brain. Neurons
are allborn in an area lining the brain's
ventricles and then migrate out. It's cra-
zy, but sometimes younger neurons
have to travel the farthest, go right
through a region of older neurons to get
to their destination. What tells a devel-
oping or migrating neuron where to end
up? One theory has steroid hormones
playing a key role in neuronal guidance.
And what is a nucleus? Basically, it's an
accumulation of neurons. They must,
then, recognize their brothers, sisters,
cousins. Maybe steroids play a pivotal
role in what's called cell recognition. Fi-
nally, steroids may keep neurons alive
by stimulating them to grow faster and
make more connections.
What we now know about steroids
»R€W£ACQNfHS:TWS
VASHJWVEBSE? ,
 .

A Thousand New Discoveries

ARCADE
Discover Why Siiaki'.s [X-'civ Prominent In Haiiiiiow, Around The 1 The highest number you can roll on
World. Ei vn When- Snake? \ener i.x'sled Pyramids Were In two dice is 12, "boxcars." Alternately,
And fiiwwben- A-i.--.habi'!? in. Various Parts Of
Ik'Vpt. Mexir.o. two dice have a total of 15 faces.
The World Begin With The Head Of A Bull - 2. Each player starts with 12 men in
checkers.
3. A "perfect game" in bowling is 12 con-
Qmages [Encyclopedia secutive strikes,
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An extraordinary new publication provides a breakthrough in
have fen.)
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i ited with inventing the 12-tone tech-
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• Quality Paperback Twelfth Night
• Large Format 1 0. The twelfth verse of the twelfth chap-
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poglossal is the twelfth.
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the barbecue was held in Margaret
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Mail Orders: 125 Armstrong Road • DesPlaines, TL 60018-2490
the moon.
16. Words spoken by the commander
tells us they act upon the DNA, or Gorski: By mixing DNA from the male's of Apollo 1 Charles "Pete" Conrad, as
2,

genome. In simplistic terms, steroids SDN with that of the female, it's possi- he first set foot on the lunar surface
must be activating a survival gene keep- ble to isolate molecules found only in 17. Cheaper by the Dozen
ing certain neurons alive. We're now try- the male SDN. With male SDN-specitic 18. 12 Angry Men
ing to home in on and identify the DNA at hand we may identity relevant 19. The Dirty Dozen
genes these hormones must be activat- genes and proteins and begin to unrav- 20. The Twelve Chairs
ing and to isolate the "survival factors" mystery of how hormones deter-
el the- 21 The twelfth day of Christmas, Jan-
.

these genes actually make. mine the structure and presumably the uary 6, marking the end of traditional
And there's another way, too, that ste- function of the brain. Christmas festivities. The preceding
roids might work. They could turn off Our field is in its infancy By using non- eve, January 5, is the "Twelfth Night"
a "suicide" process. Neurons survive be- invasive techniques, we will expand the of Shakespeare's comedy.

cause they often depend on factors list of sexual dimorphisms. Once we 22. Total number of gifts "my true love
like nerve growth factor [NGF]. Re- know whether a brain structure is on or gave to me" in the sqng "Twelve Days
searchers recently pointed out that in- off that list, we can begin to zone in on of Christmas"
stead of asking how NGF normally the effects of age, the Pill, endocrine ab- 23.There are 12 channels on a VHF di-
works, you could turn the question normalities, nervous system disease, al.Did you remember that there's no
around and ask, "Why do neurons die and the brain's structural identity. If we channel 1?
when you take NGF away?" Surpris- find wiring differences either in or be- 24. Alcoholics Anonymous
ingly they found that cell death, occur- tween various brain regions, it would, 25. Ounce is from the Latin uncia, mean-
ring after you remove trophic factors, is have a strong effect on how we think, ing a twelfth part of something. Al-
often the result of additional protein syn- and respond to the world.
feel, though there are 16 ounces to. the
thesis. Nerve cells start making some- Clearly, defining the existence of struc- pound on your bathroom scale, there
thing extra, and (hat something extra turalsex differences is the prerequisite are 1 2 ounces per pound in the troy sys-
kills them. This mechanism removal of — for studies that seem to be on —
tem used for weighing precious met-
a substance [such as NGF] that inhibits everyone's mind: namely, those address- als and gemstones —
and in the apoth-
—
a suicide gene may be fairly common. ing the question of whether men and ecary system, used in chemistry.
We have to entertain the idea that the women have distinct and different in- 26. The 12 ball in pocket billiards
role of testosterone in the male SDN is born strengths and weaknesses. But I'll 27. A soccer ball has 12 pentagonal
to turn off a suicide gene. That a factor tell you straight out: Sex differences in patches, usually black. The white patch-
from the environment outside the the structure of the human brain exist. es are hexagons.
brain, here testosterone from the testes, And for one strongly believe that
I
Dozens of thanks go to Monte J.
would lead to the survival of these neu- •some of Ihem are shaped by the sex Zerger, a mathematician at Adams
rons in the brain utterly fascinates me. hormone environment. My position re- State College of Colorado in Alamosa,
Omni: How will you study the effects of mains: It's sexually dimorphic until and Dan Shine of Cincinnati for their
hormones on the developing brain? you've 'proven it isn't. DO help with this quiz. DO
140 OMNI
 Eager to soothe feelings ventions of one sex better than the oth-

GENDER
CONTINUED FROM PAGE BB
Feminine
Flatterable
er. Your selection has nothing to do
with your own personal gender charac-
Gentle teristics but simply reflects your under-

The following characteristics fall into Gullible standing of and ability to identify soci-
the "masculine" category: Loves children ety's gender stereotypes.
Acts as leader Loyal The BSFfl assumes traditional, sex-
Aggressive Sensitive to needs of others typed individuals (those who define
Ambitious Shy themselves mainly by which sex they
Analytical Soft-spoken are) are highly attuned to cultural defi-

Assertive Sympathetic nitions of "appropriate behavior" for

Athletic Tender their sex. Sex-typed individuals use

Competitive Understanding these standards to guide their own be-

Warm havior; they're motivated to keep their
Defends own beliefs
Dominant Yielding behavior consistent with an idealized im-
Forceful age of femininity or masculinity. Such
Although you may find some overlap persons will choose to behave in ways
.
Independent
and have differences of opinion, re- that will enhance that idealized image
Individualistic
Leadership ability searchers selected the masculine and and will avoid behaviors that violate the
Makes decisions easily feminine items as most indicative of mas- image. The masculine and feminine
Masculine culine and feminine behavior in our so- items used were selected because of
Self-reliant ciety. If you identified the 20 masculine their cultural definitions and not be-

Self-sufficient and 20 feminine characteristics in the
Strong personality above test the same way the research-
ers did, you show an awareness of con-
Willing to take a stand
Willing to take risks ventional cultural norms indicating
culine and feminine behavior. If you la-
The following characteristics are "fem- beled more of these characteristics as
inine"; the rest are "neutral": either masculine or feminine, you may
Affectionate place too much emphasis on what is
Cheerful considered neutral behavior. If you
Childlike chose more masculine or more feminine
Compassionate characteristics "correctly," it could
cause more men or women chose the
items to describe themselves.
If you would like to further investigate
mas- your personal behavior and find out
whether you personally fall into feminine,
masculine, androgynous, or other be-
havioral patterns — and what each cat-
egory means —you can take the BSRI.
The testdistributed
is by Consulting
Psychologists Press. For more informa-
them at 577 College Avenue,
tion, write

Does not use harsh mean you understand the cultural con- Palo Alto, CA 94306. DQ

5TAR TECH
WELL CONNECTED:
Online services — all
computer and a modem
COMPUSERVE
CompuServe (below), owned
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HSR Block, is currently the
largest onlinesystem in the
United States. Us 600,000
subscribers typically use the
service both at home and
the ofiice, where they take
advantage of more than
1,400 different features,
including electronic mail;
connections to fax, telex,
MCI mail; 175 forums and
bulletin boards on subjects
.from PC support to pets;
news from seven wire
3 Quantum (above)
services; a feature that
picks up stories on user-
selected topics ($15 an hour
surcharge for retrieval);
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The system costs $12.50
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CompuServe membership.
Any machine with a modem
can access CompuServe.
144 OMNI
—
you need is a
QUANTUM
lets
J 25,000 subscribers leap
into onlinecyberspace via
four differentsystems
each tailored to a specific
type of computer. Prome-
nade hooks into (and comes
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all
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Once you've turned on to
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ic mail, chat facilities, and
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tional services such as
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Baseline (below, right)
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People/Link's emphasis is
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Founded in 1983, the
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private chat lines for
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more

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PRODIGY
Prodigy (the three screens
below), the offspring of a
union between IBM and
Sears, serves up more than
800 services aimed at
both adults and children. An
updated version (with
mouse capability) was intro-
duced last month. It offers
its 450,000 members the
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categories: news, sports,
and weather reports; elec-
and more than 90
tronic mail
boards; product
bulletin
purchasing, from electronic
goods to groceries; financial
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restaurant guides to various
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parenting; educational ser-
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fiction,
Membership is $12.95
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year.There are no per-hour
usage fees. Prodigy runs
on any Macintosh- or
IBM-compatible computer.
"
a
on
GENIE
GEnie (above), from GE,
conjures up its online
features for 200,000-plus
subscribers. One of its
money-saving features: You
can download data directly
onto disc to read after
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Costs vary depending on
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$4.95 per month, however,
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can access this service
with any computer and mo-
—
dem. Tom B. ReiterDO
 the onnrui arcade
VIDEO ANTICS;
You don't haveto be God to overcome the
forces of evil — but it helps

DIVINE INSPIRATION, One these key informants, you'll nev-

of 1989's fines! computer er be able to slug your way to
games, Electronic Arts' Popu- the headquarters of DRAT
lus (Genesis) becomes a car- (Drug Runners and Terrorists).
tridge breakthrough in 1990. Wrath's left-to-right scrolling an-
The goal: Eliminate the forces imation and rich graphics are
of darkness in 500 different state-of-the-art for the Ninten-
worlds. The enemy is mean do Entertainment System
and lusts for world domination. (NES). And the clue gathering
All you have is the all-power- and story line contribute brain-
ful ability to move mountains, teasing intrigue.
dig canyons, erupt volcanoes, NEW THIS FALL. Playing
invoke earthquakes, unleash miniature golf in Pee-wee's
floods,and be a holy pain in Playhouse couldn't be any
the ass. Come to think of it, demented than Electron-
!

that makes you a pretty cool, ic Arts' Zany Golf for Sega's
beatific dude. Genesis. Nine crazed holes
But Populus doesn't only en- put your putts through pinball
tail inflicting thy wrath on mazes, Disneyland-like cas-
thine enemies. You must also tles, and a mad lab fit for the
feed, the faithful flocks by man- likes of Dr. Frankenstein.
aging their supply of manna, A breathtaking musical
forge inhabitable landforms, score, vivid graphics, and an
bind the people together in so- enormous fantasy world make
cial unity, and lead your army Hudsonsoft's Ancient Ys Van-
on a crusade against the ishedVhe ultimate role-playing
forces of evil. Lord, this God video game (CD-ROM for the
stuff is hard work! TurboGrafx-16).
MORTAL DILEMMAS. While Acclaim's Total Recall (NES)
some men may be gods, or at takes from the Arnold Schwarz-
least think they are, the rest of us just keep banging our enegger movie. Accumulate an array ot adversaries as
heads against reality. And that sums up life for Bonk, a you accumulate a variety of sophisticated weapons need-
teenage caveman who literally uses his head to fight a ed for the final confrontation on Mars.
gallery of strange prehistoric opponents in Bonk's Ad- Ultima IV, the classic role-playing computer game, be-
venture (for NEC's TurboGrafx-16). He butts heads, comes FCI's Ultima: Ouest of the Avatar for the NES.
jumps, and climbs through several levels of difficulties on PLAYER'S GALLERY. Throughout A Boy and His Blob
his way to rescuing the beautiful Princess Za from the evil (NES) you'll uncover secret caverns by turning the blob
King Drool. into a hole and trying to drop into it.
With clever animation, cartoonish graphics, and tongue- In World 3-1 of Super MarioLand (Game Boy) jump in-
in-cheek humor, Bonk rises above the ranks of kick-and- to the bricks at the left of the screen and then onto the
punch video games. Not since the Mario Brothers first elevator when it appears. The elevator will carry you over-
kicked a turtle have there been such enjoyable antics head, where you can race safely through half that level.
from a video game character. Find the spaceport on the roof of Paseo's central tow-
MARTIAL ARTS VIGILANTE. Taito's Wrath of the Black er in Phantasy Star II (Genesis). It will allow you to go on

Manta has a lot more going for it than .kicks, chops, and to the world of Dezo and your second adventure.
knuckle-to-nose video violence. Capture special villains We'll pay you $25 for each video or computer game
and they'll spill the beans on the location of secret tip we publish. Send them to Game Tips, c/o Omni. 1965
doors, hidden motives, and kidnapping victims. Without Broadway, New York, NY 10023.— Bob Lindstrom
 —

the onnrui arcade

POWER PLAYS:
In the real world corporate heads are in charge, but you
take control in these computer games

ETTU, BRUTUS? Charlton The game exploits its game also offers two new national relations gets
Heston and KirkDouglas broad-based action-strategy courses to play: Muirfield in scratched when MicroProse
aren't the only guys who mix to provide a constantly Dublin, Ohio, where Nick- uncovers the multifaceted
look good in a toga. Try on changing game environ- laus made his first stab at Covert Action (IBM). And
your own ancient apparel ment. Outstanding graphics course design; and The Miles Computing is introduc-
and dominate the world, and an evocative musical Bear's Track, a simulated ing yet more puzzle games,
—
too in Electronic Arts' Cen- score complete the illusion course created especially including Puzzle Gallery II,

turion: Defender of Rome of a visit to the ancient world for Ultimate Golf. an unusual road trip that fol-

($49.94, IBM). or at least a Hollywood imita- WHO'S A FOOL? The ulti- lows a family as they visit
A cinematic hybrid of ar- tion of the real thing. mate in puzzle games, Miles such sights as Big Ugly
cade energy, war-game DUFFER'S DELIGHT. Computing's The Fool's Er- Lake and the Great Wall of
challenge, and diplomatic Let's see.. .move that tree rand(S49.94, IBM, Mac, Ami- China — plates, that is.

strategy, Centurion trans- next to the tee; change the ga) and The Puzzle Gallery WE ACCEPT TIPS. The
ports players to the golden shape of the green; and ($39.95, IBM, Mac) offer Fool's Errand: The numbers
age of Rome. With military drop a 30-foot-deep cre- hours of mind-jolting conun- in The Enchantment must be
might, political savvy, and a vasse in the middle of the fair- drums, crosswords, number entered in the right order to

iew good laps in a chariot, way. It may be the golf acrostics,and jigsaw im- solve the puzzle. The correct
you may become Caesar, course from hell, but it's ages. When you think you've order: 4, 1,6,7, 5,2,3.
the ultimate ruler of the great mine, mine!
all reached the end of these Origin Systems' Ultima VI
Roman Empire. Manage Whether your golf course mental diversions, the solu- (IBM): To get a peek at

military resources, stage cesigr intentions are dedicat- tion to the firsl maze of a map of your surroundings,
gladiatorial games, and use ed or deranged, Accolade's puzzles uncovers clues to an- hold' the alt key, enter the
incisive troop-moving skill to Jack Nicklaus' Ultimate Golf other set of puzzles! numbers 2, 1, and 3, in that

wage land and sea battles. & Course Design ($59.95, FALL LINEUP. Get sucked order, and then release
IBM) gives you the tools and into a TV set and broadcast the alt key.
the muscle to bulldoze your toa weird fantasy world in Al- interplay's DragonWars
own roughs, traps, fairways, tered Destiny (\QM), a graph- (IBM, Apple II); There are at
and bunkers. But you must icallystunning role-playing least two ways to get out of

use your own energy and game from Accolade. purgatory. Win at combat in

imagination.
Enhanced by 265-color
graphics and compatible
withall Nicklaus golfdiscs, UI-.
timate Golf is the most i
sop'iislicai.Dd p roc ram in the
Nk;<lajs port ssref. The
Peter Molyneuz, the mas-
termind behind Populus, un-
veilsa new arena for your;
godly impulses in Electronic
Arts' 3-D Powefmohger
(IBM, Amiga).
The underbelly of
the arena and you'll receive
citizenship papers that per-
mit/you to cross the bridge
to Phoebus. Or masquerade
as a corpse and your body
will be dumped outside pur-
inter- ca:orv —Bob Lindstrom

<P*%*a

Cjw-jM'W a B

//////•/>///>/>'
 — 8

THE DfUinJI ARCADE

TWELFTH ANNIVERSARY QUIZ:
Grab a pencil for dozens of questions
and a gross of fun

It doesn't seem possible, but its 'reversal": 21x21 = 441. every correct answer. A made into a 1957 film star-

children born when 0mm 's There are sortie people score above 1 2 is good; 1 ring Henry Fonda, Lee J.

premier issue was on the who would like to see a duo- or more is excellent; any Cobb, E. G. Marshall, Jack
newsstands will be teen- decimal (base 12) system score above two dozen is Klugman, Jack Warden, and
agers next year, and light of counting, since J2canbe phenomenal. Ed Begley.
that then left the star Procy- divided evenly so many 1. Dice 19. Action film with Lee Mar-

on, in the constellation Can- ways, but it will probably nev- 2. Checkers vin, Ernest Borgnine, John

is Minor, is just now reaching er happen. In fact, trends 3. Bowling perfection Cassavetes, Charles Bran-
us. We devote. this anni- are going the other way, to 4. A game with 12 members son, Donald Sutherland, and
versary Games column to the base 10 system. when played by women George Kennedy
the number 12, in all its var- Even so, there are many 5. A game with 1 2 per team 20. A 1970 comedy by Mel
ied and fascinating facets. remnants of dividing things when played in Canada Brooks, starring Ron Moody,
Plato saw his 1 2-faceted sol- up by 12. There are 12 inch- 6. America's Cup Frank Langella, and Dom
id, the dodecahedron, as es in a12 items in a doz-
loot, 7. Arnold Schonberg DeLuise
representing the enveloping en, 12 monthsin a year, 8. Samuel Clemens's pen 21. The Epiphany
universe, and he chose the 12 signs of the zodiac, and name 22. 364 gifts
number for establishing 12 hours on a standard 9. "If music be the food of 23. VHF television
weights, measures, and coin- clock face repeated — love, play on." 24. Members of this group fol-
age'in his ideal state. Mathe- through each day and night. 10. "Jo-ha'nan the eighth, low Twelve Steps, the
maticians call 12 the first There were 12 apostles of ...
El'za-bad the ninth" (from I first of which is reliance on
abundant number, meaning Christ, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 Chronicles) God or a higher power, as
that the sum of its divisors, gods of Olympus, and 12 la- 11. The human chest each individualunderstands
excluding itself, is greater bors of Hercules. There are 12. Hypoglossal nerve that concept.
than the number itself: 12 members on a jury, 12 1 3. The Wilkes family planta- 25. There are 12 buttons on
1 + 2+3+4+ 6 = 16. notes in the chromatic tion in Gone With the Wind a push-button telephone,
(Most numbers are deficient, scale, and 1 2 banks in the 14. Silk or linen and the twelfth button has
meaning that the factors Federal Reserve System, as 1 5. Moonwalkers been assigned the pound
add up to less than the num- shown on U.S. currency by 16. "Whoopee! Man, that (#) symbol. What other rela-
ber.) The sum of 12"s factors' the prefixes A (Boston) may have been a small one tionship links 12w\th the
is a square, 16, and their through /.(San Francisco). for Neil, but that's a long one pound?
product is also a square forme!" 26. A small white sphere
TWELVES QUIZ with a purple stripe
144, which is the square of 17. Movie about the Gill.veth
12 itself. What is the connection be- family, starring Clifton Webb 27. A larger white sphere
square of 12
Curiously, the tween the following items as the father and Myrna Loy with blackpentagons
has a neat mirror-image re- and the number 12? as the mother (1950) Answers appear on page
lationship with the square of Give yourself one point for 18. Reginald Rose's play, 140.— Scot Morris DO
150 OMNI
 LAST IAJORD
THE ATOMIC CAFE:
Old-fashioned American food prepared in fhe
most astonishing ways

Charles assisted by his able yet extreme- melons are grown in aweightless
ly jumpy sidekick, Tung, a Cam- garden capsule circling the
Memminger thinks
that the next bodian dishwasher— filled out ap- earth above the cafe.

modern kitchen plications for federal grants, • Mel's Blackened Meteoric Mal-
appliance will formed partnerships with private lard. The finest Canadian duck is

be Mr. Hubble, an engineering firms, bribed foreign encased in 800 pounds of ce-
all-purpose governments for state scientific se- ramic insulation before being
tool that slices, experimen-
crets, illegally test-fired dropped from Mel's Shuttle into
dices, makes tal spacecraft, smuggled danger- Earth's atmosphere. The insula-

coffee, and does ous materials out of military lab- tion burns away, leaving the

everything you oratories,and thoroughly read duck seared on the outside but
ask It—except take The Joy of Cooking. wonderfully juicy on the inside by
photos in focus. thought of that as stepped
I
I the time it lands in the "Mallard
out of the taxi and gazed at the Mitt" on the cafe roof.

neon sign on the front of the •Transport Surprise. For the

cafe. The line of people waiting to young at heart. Sure, transporters

get in wound down the block. Mel still are not safe for human travel.

didn't take reservations. And There's no telling how all those at-
Tung, elevated from dishwasher oms are going to reassemble af-
to honorary doctor of advanced ter flying across the room! But it's

I'm a ramblin' kind of guy. Can't physics and doorman, was great fun for food. Mel will trans-
stand sitting in one place too choosy about whom he let in. port any type of food from one
long, seeing the same sights... Luckily, knew Tung from way
I
side of the kitchen to the micro-
eating the same food. So keep
I
back. He and had been kicked
I
wave oven/receiver on the other
moving, searching out new adven- out of Southeast Asia together side and bring the results steam-
tures and new tastes. years ago after we tore up a riv- ing to your table.

That's why was intrigued by a

I
new joint had heard about:
I
"Mel's Cosmic Cafe and Atomic
Appliance Testing Center. Home
Famous Fusion Chili; So
of Mel's
Hot, It's Served in a Magnetic
Field." Mel's a little wordy, but
what do you expect from a nucle-
ar physicist-turned-diner-owner?
Man, how long were
erside bar that refused to accept
a small amount of plutonium (sup-
posedly safely encased in lead)
in payment for about a week's
worth of Mai Tais.
Tung led me to a quiet table
where for the next four hours
waves of strange and marvelous-
lyprepared dishes engulfed me.
we stuck Here is a report from my notes:
Ultima Ultrasound Margaritas.
You haven't had a margarita until
you've had one "blended" in Mel's
magnificent sound machine. Te-
quila, lime juice, ice, and triple sec
are placed in the sealed cham-
—
ber shaped like an old-fash-
—
ioned jukebox and exposed to
the song of your choice. The mu-
sic is manipulated to create the

in backwa-
that techno-appliance • Super Collider Guacamole. A most intense sound waves possi-
have never tast- ble, causing the ice to shatter, the
where Cuisinart was queen?
ter creamier version 1

Why were we so locked in to ed. Succulent California avoca- liquor to vibrate, and all the mol-
those blenders,. juicers, pitters, cor- dos, lovely young onions, and ecules the mixture to generally
in

ers, Ginzu knives, sub-light- firm red tomatoes are fed into a go berserk.
speed eggbeaters, and other an- 500-mile-circumference Texas su- could go on and tell you
I

tiquated mechanical marvels per collider. The produce will about all the stuff on the menu I

that wowed Grandma? reach speeds exceeding 5,000 didn't get a chance to try. The Min-

From what I'd read in the trendy miles per hour before it is iature Thermonuclear Explosion

tood rags, Mel was dismayed slammed into a perfectly smooth Tossed Salad prepared at the ta-
when he looked around his little wall. The vegetables are reduced ble next to mine looked interest-
kitchen and saw the sad collec- to their very essence, and the at- ing. But think I save that report
I'll

ancient utensils at his dis- oms mingle and blend. for another time. All know is that
tion of
I

posal. No! This do

would not at • Angel-Wing Prosciutto on Mel- life has meaning again. can I

on Rings. Aged prosciutto cut rest, knowing that as sleep, Mel

all!He yelled and screamed and I

pounded on the wooden cutting
block. "We need H^AT! LIGHT!
SPEED! We need. ..we need...
EXPLOSIONS!"
For the next six years,
with lasers into slices so light and has his 40-person Atomic Appli-
thin that, if dropped, they simply ance Testing Crew exploring
hang in They rest on per-
the air. strange new ways to boldly go
fectly round rings of honeydew mel- where no cook has gone before.
Mel- —
on perfectly round because the —
Charles Memminger DO