month in its three-dimensional glory isthe first hologram to be printed by a majormagazine. Kissing cousin to phote- graphs, holograms use film but no lens andare exposed only to the light of a laser. Striking as he is, our little eagle offers more than graphic novelty—he gives usa peek into an onrushing technological storm based on the marriage of computer sciencesand the laser beam. Like the qui- et before an Asian monsoon storm, the early sprinkling of concepts and products that have reached us gives only a hint of the fload to come. In this issue our team of writers, pho- tographers, and artists brings us an up- date on this exciting field—ineluding an explanation of how the cover was made (page 372), and how the same techniques will someday bring us three-limensional color television, Though the: rest of the magazine lacks the eagle's high-tech look, its consistent high-quality printing is just asdependent on laser and electronic developments. Even the hologram’s blue frame was de- signed without pen touching paper, by a machine normally used in designing and drawing our wall maps utilizing lasers. This column was written on a paper- less typewriter—a four-pound portable computer that transmitted these words via my home telephone in seconds to an electronic typesetting system, which fit them to this page. With a bit of help, it will even correct my misspellings. Allthe words and photographs for each issue's articles are electronically scanned and engraved onto printing cylinders with an accuracy of one thousandth of an inch. On press, 13,$00 miles of six- foot-wide paper flies aver these cylinders at 30 feeta second with near-perfect regis- ter of the five to seven colors, thanks to electronic controls. Without these tools your Geocrarnic would cost at least twice as much and not be as well done. More important, the same technology that made our cover a reality is already being applied to everything from super- markets to surgery tomake possible a bet- ter and longer life for all of us. Prreatiint proudly an our cover this tithes E Pah nrtoR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC March 1984 China’s Remote Peoples 283 They are the other Chinese—nomads, farmers, monks, mountain tribesmen—almost 70 million people ina nation exceeding « billion. Journalist Wong How-Man travels 11,000 miles to visit China's little-known “national minorities.” The Laser: “4 Splendid Light” 335 Dazzling in its uses, the laser taps the awesome power of light for technologies from medicine to the military. Allen A. Boraiho and Charles O’Rear illuminate its bright promise The Wonder of Holography 364 Interacting streams of laser light create three- dimensional images that intrigue artists, fait counterfeiters, and pinpoint industrial flaws. Dr, H. John Caulfield reports, with photographs by Charles O'Rear. Canada’s Not-So-Wild West 378 ‘Once a tough little cow town, Calgary és now the flamboyant oil capital of Canada. David Boyer and photographer Ottmur Bierwagen chronicle its reugh-and-tumble ride on fortune's wheel. They're Killing OF the Rhino 404 From Africa to the Far East, this powerful but vulnerable behemoth is rapidly disappearing. Conservationist Esmond Bradley Martin and phatographer Jim Brandenburg track the rhina from its shrinking habitat to far-flung market- places that spur its dernise COVER: A miniature model of a bald eagle appears in three dimensions ina hologram pro- duced by the American Bank Note Company. The image is best viewed under‘a single light source. TETHE JOURNAL OFeoples of hmass Far rovinces ARTICLE AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY WONG HOW-MAN N THE END I never needed the louse shampoo, though it was reassuring to have it along. The dealer in Hong Kong had in- sisted it was made especially for Asian lice, and at the time it seemed a good investment. Noone, in fact, knew much about the area I planned to explore. The remote region of cen- tral China is still largely closed to foreigners. Perhaps partly because of my Chinese ances- try, the government had made anexception— orso | thought. Now, in my hotel room in the southern city of Kunming, I surveyed the mountain of food and equipment T had brought along for my expedition and won- dered if I would get to use it after all Thad been in Kunming a week, waiting for the jeep and two drivers I had been promised I had laid out my itinerary carefully, includ- ing six provinces and two autonomous re- gions, the homelands of ten ethnic minorities in whom I was especially interested. If the ex- pedition should fall through now at the last minute, it would mean the end of many years’ study and preparation, some inost isdlatedSheer drops te. Sichuan and Gansu ProCo hy. 2, Ji PR acces ivee , yo fi ote Altengoke. . torgte’ GINGHAL i eee 3 Bina (SICHUAN AUTONOMOUS AEDIO : TN iLihye P F dv engdu esl BET? : “ ae, . fodke him some 18,000 TP lometers (11,000 mites) eratgh ix provinces and two autbhomaus regions, where he visited more than rinorities, One mountain pass in Sichuan used fo be so narrow that loaded muiles could not pass ana bend. “Drivers had to yell to make sure no ane was coming.” Wong was told. “If oe forgot and met another party in the middle, the mules could not be backed, so the guilty party hitd to push his animats over the cliff.”\ THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC of China Tam what is known as an overseas Chi- nese—one of Chinese origin who lives outside the mainland borders. I was born and raised in Hong Kong, graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls, and make my home today in Los Angeles During the 1970s I lived with my parents in Hong Kong and worked asa journalist. In 1974 | had my first opportunity to visit Chi- na with a group of other overseas Chinese journalists. At that time the People’s Repub- lic was still in the grip of the Cultural Reyo- lution, and our movements were strictly limited. Later, when the Cultural Revolu- tion had passed, I made a number of tripsto ‘more widely traveled areas of the country. Twas aware that the Chinese authorities always saw what I published, but they con- tinued to allow me into the country. From ‘that [learned a waluable lesson: The govern- ment of the People's Republic of China will tolerate honest criticism, but not what it re- gards as prejudice. In 1982 I determined to pursue my prima- ry interest, the study of national minorities within China. The trip would be a difficult one, by four-wheel-drive vehicle over rough terrain, but the government gave me per- mission. Now in Kunming, I began to won- der about that permission—had it been canceled, postponed, or just what? Aknockon the hotel-room door interrupt- ed my thoughts. I opened it and found two young Chinese who smiled politely. “Wong Laosi [Teacher Wong],” one ad- dressed me in respectful tones, “we’are your two drivers, Zhang Changjiu.and Luo Wen- gui. The jeep is outside the hotel with spare gasoline cans. What are your wishes?” My wishes were that we load up and get started, Within an hour we were packed and on the road in our Chinese-built jeep. The date was June 10, 1982, and a long journey lay head of us. In all we were to drive some 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) through Yunnan, Sichuan, Xizang (Tibet), Qinghai, Gansu, Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi. We would visit more than the ten ethnic minor- ities originally counted on and I would expe- rience some of the rarest moments of my life. Of China’s population of more than one billion, 93 percent is Han Chinese. The Han 287erged as the China’s five million Vi scattered over a wider empire by establishing a dynasty of Brooke's remains were ranson me inthe third century 8,c. alongth ith the help. of native intermediaries— low River. Though invaded by the Mori others of hisexpedition dared not try to pen d ruled by their klians between A.D. 1260 etratethe Yi's mountain fastness. Even dur- and 1368, the Han Emp rorually ex s, the forerun- “national minorities," were e he early years of the People’s Republic panded. Neighboring peo: e entering these regions did so 3 of tod: i, though the Vinow admit outsid lly assimilated, were conquered, or At Niuniuba, in the heart of the Daliang rew to remote areas to retain their in dependence HEN the Communist Ch me to power in 1949, they d the national minorities an ure of autonomy a istai maintaining their languages and cultural 4 man in his d Halakuka, returning home fre the Sunday market. Halakuka invited me t visit his house, a rare opportunity I quickly cepted. After hiking for half an hour cultivated fields of corn and rived at Halakuka’s home 3, we hills identities Foday China’s 35 national minorities to- se. The purpose oi how some of th outside the thatch-roofed began to chat. Until. as 1950s, Ilearned, the ¥ seminor- rigid hierarchical slave society, The society jecades— was divided into four distinct levels. At the how they live, how they are treated, and top were the Nuo-nuo—sometimes called what the future holds for them, Black Bor who were the nobles, Next We began with the people known as Yi, came the Qunuo, or commoners, and next some of whom live in the Daliang Shan, or the Ajia, or so-called tributary slaves, who “creat cool mountain” region, three ¢ lived outside the nobles’ households. Final journey north of Kunming: Here in ly, at the bottom, were the Vai, or house hn Weston Brooke, a fo slaves, who were forced to live with their rattin) tal some 67 million p my trip was to's # the past three! alry officer and a fellow noble masters graphical Society, was killed by th “T was lucky,” Halakuka explained. “I inhabitants e le numt was a tributary slave and could liv 750,000 and beleng to the larger group of rately. My biggest aspiration was 1 Four for the road pitch s right, assistant Che Yuertkai; and to kits left, his government-assigned drivers, Zhang Changi Luo Wengui. “They had to be mechanics as well," says Wong, “because breaketo of our Chinese four-wheet drive jeep st first day out of K parts th teven itch—which we Nutional Geographic, March 1984be free—that was out of the question— but to own a few slaves of my own. Such were the wishes of most people in my class." In 1935 the first gandi, or Commu eadres from Beijing, appeared in the Da- liang Shan. “In the beginning,” Halakuka said, “everyone was skeptical and refused to believe the canbu’s promises toend slavery, But then a few who dared to run away from their masters were protected by the ganbu and allowed to start new lives. Word got around, and eventually we all became free." The development brought Halakuka not only freedom but also new responsibility ‘Today at 65 he is in charge of his communi- ty's grain storage bins (OM the Daliang Shan, we made our Fe north to Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan. The city lay under a canopy ef hot, humid air and was surround- ed by a golden fringe of rice fields. Every- where the markets were crowded with people and produce, the latter raised in local farmers’ private plots during spare time out- side their required work for their com- munes. Such openair free markets give farmers additional income beyond their share of proceeds from their communes, Un- der the more relaxed economic policy for the countryside, rural Chinese are in many ways better off than their city counterparts, Some 200 kilometers southwest of Chengdu lies Kangding, whose name in the old days was Ta-tsien-lu—titerally “arrow- tempering furnace,” The term is popularly believed to have originated in the third cen- tury a.p., when the celebrated military strategist Zhuge Liang of the Eastern Han Dynasty ordered that his army's iron arrow- heads be forged here. Inthe past, Kangding was considered the gateway from China into Tibet. Most trade between the Han Chinese and the Tibetans was transacted here, The Chinese mer- chants bought silver, herbs, musk, or furs from Tibetan traders, who purchased tea and small items such as needles and pins. Standing 4,113 meters (13,300 feet}above sea level, Kangding is ringed by snow-clad mountains in a valley where the Zheduo River thunders through. As one of many methods of disposing of the dead, townspeo- ple often dump corpses into the Zheduo. Peoples of China's Far Provinces ‘Thisis called “water burial." Another meth- od is known as “sky burial.” This involves cutting up the body and feeding the pieces to the vultures. Tibetans believe that ‘as the vultures finish feeding and take flight, they carry the spirit of the deceased heavenward, ‘Cremation, or “fire burial," is restricted to the wealthy. Simple interment, or “earth burial,” is favored by Han Chinese and Ti- hetans who have assimilated Chinese cul- ture. Finally, there is the technique of embalming and mummifying the body, a practice reserved for Buddhist saints At Kangding I heard the first of many explanations of why Tibetans refrain from eating fish, When bodies are dumped into rivers, they are usually eaten by fish. The fish are thus contaminated and unfit to cat. Later, on the northern Tibetan Plateau, 1 heard another explanation: Fish live in wa- ter and do not compete with people, so.one should not kill them. Still another version in Qinghai holds that the taboois a merciful act ef Lamaism toward fish, which carry so many eggs inside their bodies. The most bi- zarre explanation of all came from southern Gansu, where Twas told that since a fish has ‘no tongue, it cannot gossip, Because Tibet- ans consider gossiping a cardinal sin, they ‘thus reward the fish for its virtue. INCE ] was about to enter an area in- habited by Tibetan nomads, the man- agerof my hotel in Kangding gave mea short course in Tibetan etiquette “The nomads,” he began, “are most hos- pitable. They will offer any passerby food and drink. Refusal implies that the offering is not good enough. So when you are given food, whether it is palatable or not, make sure you eat a full portion, “Tibetan gestures are different from ours,” the manager continued, “When ad- dressing you for the first time, a Tibetan may stick out his tongueat you and show his open palms at waist level. This isan ancient and very courteous form of Tibetan greet- ing. The outstretched hands show that no weapon is hidden, and thus:no harm is in- tended. The display of the tongue dates back to.an old superstition that one who poisons others has a black tongue.” Driving northwest from Kangding, we ¢limbed steeply among breathtaking 201snow-clad mountains that seemed to contin- tie forever. Labering in low gear, the jeep crawled ever higher through a series of switchbacks and hairpin turns. We set out amid pines and bitches, which gradually gave way to junipers and rhododendrons. Beyond 4,000 meters (15,000 feet) above sea wvel the trees ended and there were only low shrubs, grasses, and a profusion of blue and yellow poppies. The latter were to become our instant altimeter: Whenever we were climbing and came upon the poppies, we knew we had reached the 4,000-meter level EAR THE TOWN of Luhuo we aved fortwo days with five Tibet- an yak herders from a local com- mune. Among the five was a 23-year-old named Bobolanga, who always w smile, Bobolanga had spent three years i the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and spoke Putonghua, or Mandarin Chinese, which is understood by many Han and mi- nority groups alike, Tspent long hours with Bobolanga and his companions, drinking tea in their tent. Tea is indispensable to Tibetans. They are so ad- dicted to itthat both the Chinese and British once thought that by controlling the tea trade in Tibet they could subdue the Tibet- ans, They were wrong, but tea is nonethe- san integral part of Tibetan life. Entering a Tibetan tent puts one’s senses to a most severe test, Smoke from the fur- nace fueled by yak dung saturates the entire ving space and brings tears to -unseasoned yes. Yak butter, with its pungent odor, is sliced and then mixed with salt and boiling tea in a wooden cylinder. The mixture is poured into wooden bowls and offered tothe visitor, serving after serving Besides consuming buttered tea and spending long hours talking, my new friends and T developed a keen mutual interest in ‘oné another's objects of daily use. Much to the Tibetans’ astonishment, our tents went up within minutes, while theirs took a good half day to pitch. Bobolanga showed great curiosity in my mountain stave, which burned a variety of fuels from gasoline. and diesel to kerosene or oil, Accustomed to the yak-hide bellows he used to fan his fire, he always wondered where I hid ry bellows. Tn the evening our Tibetan friends Peoples of China's Far Provinces rounded up their 200 yaks and drove themto camp with much hissing and occasional rock throwing. The calves were separated from their mothers, and Bobolanga and his col- leagues began milking the cows, Streams of rich, yellowish fluid spurted. into wooden buckets, with yak hairs mixed in as unin- tentional ingredients. Bobolanga and his friends milked the cows so enthusiastically that I was afraid little would be left for the calves, Bobolanga put my mind at ease. “There are four teats to cach cow,” he said “We milk only three and leave the fourth for the calves. They never complain. left the nomads and headed west toward Lhasa. The usual run between Chengdu and the Ti- betan capital takes a fortnight for a truck driver. Chinese Army outposts offering heat- ed rooms and hot sup- pers are stationed at 7O-kilometer intervals, and we took full advan- M Planting on a'stant, tage of the service. modern Yi farmers At Maniganggo the (facing page) in road divides. The Sichuan have northern route leads to abandoned slash and-turn methods— atong with slavery. Unmarried girls still favor a headdress of rolled fabric (above) Qinghai Province and the other to eastern Ti- bet. By the time we made it up the pass, 4,600-meter-high Cho La, our jeep had over- heated four times, and each time we had to stop and pour in glacial water from streams along the read. During one of these refillings of the radiator, the boiling water spouted ‘out and some drops hit my face. Instead of heing scalded, I found the water tempera- ‘ture to be surprisingly low. I recalled then that at such great height water boils at a much lower temperature. From then on, whenever we heard the radiator fizzing, we took our time refilling it T weeks after leaving Chengdu, Zhang and Luo and I arrived in Lhasa. Fornturies this was the legendary goal of Western explorers, Itis only within the past few ve ity has become accessible stern tourist nat that, the price ch: Western visitors to this sacred c tomatically booked into the: best guesthouse, whichis located onthe of Lhasa and costs 290 yuan ($145 L person per day, The next best—Number One Hostel in the heart of town—costs just three yuan, or $1.30, a day. My driver Zhang and Luo, and I opted forthe lesstuxu ous accommodations. At Number One Hostel tickets for meals and showers are sold daily at fixed hours. The showers, boasting solar heating, were set in another building, paint mantic pink—unusual indeed for China For four days 1 tried in vain to take a ower within the prescribed twe hours of wn ‘scapital, and Province (right) #,500 meters (15,000 feet), “Ambition as high ag the clouds reads the banner of Shé Zhao-min to hin a year. That youn, al for such iging China. 126 mainte capitals w people have time and a, adventures is a sign ofa ch 294 the afternoon, Each time, however, I was told that the water was not hot enough. That seemed odd it Lha knowmas there 3,000 hours a year more than eight hours aday. The last d was in Lhasa I finally succeeded in corner- ing the manager as he walked into the bath- ince, as it hapy and I refused to be denied. Towel an: in hand, Fstrodeinta the building be man 1 found many of the hotel staff n tubs or leisurely taking showers The water was deliciously hot I spent hours walking the watching the Tibetans liv ing under the shacow of the fortress-like palace known as the Potala. In the evening soakinke a.chance ut the time: Zhang came1984north, climbing higher and higher until we Pass—at 5,300 meters int we were to 1, Nearby, amid s the source arrived at T uffi- caused by ii among drivers id. When their elev cient oxygen, is com 380 kilome er in the w k we reached ( e sea level. Slowly ers to-go strain thems: 200 meters abe i from the roof of the e time suff aggravate ania, « ad contracte the sai ther. Th: ‘or lwo We saw many an: telopes,.a few wolves, and alot ofemptines tically no settlements ala | save occa ately Zhar and the doctor was not h There were n this stretch of r r, and within ¢ maintenance and military enough to travel. Zhang’s fe In our eagerness to reach Golmud, we at the hospital wondered to just continued drivir dark one t stuck in he road. er went off once more we continued an ocean of mud. We were f Eager traditionalists, ni. F ted ta th They have er nom imperial Chini tra dance in Qiand deep in the vehicle without supper. ‘Next morning I walked to the nearest road construction station, four kilometers away. There the supervisor dispatched a huge tractor that easily towed us out. During my ride on the tractor I talked with the driver, a soldier in the People’s Lib- eration Army, which is improving and pav- ing the road. “Outsiders spend one winter here,” he told me, “and they find even that too much to bear. But we on the road crew spend fivo winters cach year.” Llooked puz- zled and he explained “During winter months all road construc- tion stops, and we descend to Golmud. Even at that elevation, the winter is brutal. Then during summer we come back up here. Working out in the open at nearly 5,000 meters, we are exposed toa second, equally severe ‘winter.’"” N JULY 12 we drove our mud- stained jeep at last into Golmud, Qinghai Province’s second largest after Xining, the capital. Here. on the southernedge of the Qaidam Basin, standsa madern oasis and a transportation center commanding taffic into Tibet from the north. The railroad from China proper encls here, but one day it may be extended to Lha~ sa, Looking at the string of military and ci- vilian truck convoys being readied for the strenuous journey south toward Lhasa, Tre- flected that Golmud owes its very existence to Tibet. The south side of the city seems one vast motor pool. Gasoline tanker trucks form their own convoys, for approximately one out of every seven trucks on this road carries fuel for the other six. From Golmud we drove east through the Qaidam Basin toward ing. After the snows of high Tibet, the desert was a wel- come change. On the way to Xining we stopped briefly at Qinghai Hu, the largest lake in China. In the middle of the lake lies a tiny island once occupied by a Tibetan monastery. Songs of the children of Nining used to re- count how in winter the lamas walked across the frozen surface of the lake to tawn to sell their handmade goods and buy daily necessities. Asspringapproached, the lamas sighed in griefas the city merchants, who were mostly Peoples of China's Far Provinces ‘Muslims, raised the prices on their merchan- dise, They knew that the lamas, who were too frugal to purchase boats, had to stock up for summer and rush back to their island be- fore the ice thawed. ‘Although Muslim peoples migrated cen- turies ago from Central Asia to Tibet, teli- gious differences between them and the Buddhist Tibetans sometimes led to dis- trust, No area was forbidden to Muslims in Tibet, but none of them would ever enter a lamasery. By the same token, no Tibetan, would entera mosque, for Tibetans believed that. the Muslims deliberately buried Tibet- an holy books under the thresholds of their mosques so that visiting Tibetans would in- advertently sin by treading there, Pausing briefly in Xining, we continued toward Huzhu, 45 kilometers northeast, Here stands the seat of government of an ethnic minority known as the Tu. Alocal government jeep was waiting for us on the road between Xining and Huzhu. I ‘was invited to ride in the official vehicle while Luo followed in our jeep. Aftera short drive we reached the village of Dazhang. As we neared the outskirts, Lcould see that the entire village had turned out. People in bright costumes lined both sides of the road, swarmingarnund us as the jeep stopped. As T stepped down, I was offered “wine"—a barley liquor—by two village elders and was obliged to drink three glassfuls in sueces- sion. As it turned out, this feat was to be re- peated many times before the day was over. Atnoon we were invited toa private home for lunch and were seated on a bed beside a low central table. To the accompaniment of many’ songs we were served several dishes, including a ceremonial one, a wooden bow! ‘of tsamba, or parched barley, on top of which was a pat of butter sculptured in a three-legged symbol representing earth, sun, and moon, This was a reminder to the Tu that they had once led the life of nomads, roa the earth under the sun and moon and eating tsamba, From a Tu official, Li Yandai, T learned ‘thatthere are only 160,000 Tuinall China— 47,000 of them in the Dazhang area, I won- dered if one reason for the small population figure might have been the Tu practice of daitiantow. Under this custom, ifa girl was not betrothed by the age of 13, her parents 301would “marry her to heaven," declaring her eligible for traditional marria iscovered that these “heayen-bound’ ofte 1 families outside mar- riage, apparently with social approval Iwas much by the charm and hos pitality of the Tu people. As Ltook m: i areful to observe their ering three servings of wine to my hosts, Though it was their own wine | was ppre d children all gath- ur jeep left the vill awed usc n of of- acious g, they scemed nonethel |. Women, 5 useff. 2 a farewell song fol ‘OME 600 KILOMETERS ‘beyond Dazhan on our route stood the majes- nthe road ith abrang in southern Operated bath n institute of Labrang boasted an aver- and students from the ding in 1700 until the c ing of Communism in 1949. Labrang has six colleges—the College of Esoteric or Metaphysical ‘Teaching of Bud- dhism, the Lower and Higher Colleges of Theology, the College of the Wh the College and t Astronomy. The College of Esnteric ing, largest of the six, ance enrolled 2 monks, Completion of all its coursescan tas- take as long as 15 years. The college con: f ¢ Tibetan equivalents of bachelor's, master’s, and doctoral degrees The interiors of Lal were both luxurious and well preserved, contradicting reports that everything had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolu- tion, Twas fascinated by the lamasery’s two master kitchens, where g's major temples than 3,000 monks were once turned aut. Five gi ganti¢woks, each measuring some three me- ters across, were built into each’ of these kitehens—or rather, the kitchens were built around the wok: Wooden buckets for serving the monks were neal on shelf after shelf along the walls, It was said that in the past these buckets served a second, more formidable student monk who failed his on was forced to wearsuch a led with water around his neck, and to wear it until he could < for more cite properly Peoples of China's Far Provinces tions on religious Cultural Revolutio pede of Tibetans to the celibate life at La- brang, Though this should contribute to Since the government relaxed its restric- following the , there has been astam- population-control program, the nmen imited enrollment at La- ang to no more than $00 monk: During our expedition I ¥ it a few of the sites through which th d to vis teapot (facing page) at a wheat-growi commune of the Hui, a Muslim ininority. The innovation boits water in and burns no precious wood gain. A timeless street scene in finds a curbside dentist witha powered drill advertising pa: removal under @ canopy pr by a free trunie 303vultures, but unhappily Ide not. Se L hired an assistant who knows the trick. His calls are always answered, and now we have suc- cessful burials once more,” Aswe approached the Min Shan rangeon the northern border of Sichuan Province, I was struck by the way Tibetans there carry their personal weapons—rifles, pistols, swords, and knives—wherever they go. By contrast, the Han people walk about un- armed. I was told that the Tibetans living farther south fiad been largely disarmed by the government asa result-of unrest there in the late 1980s. Tibetans living to the north, having caused the government no head- aches, are allowed to retain their weapons, which they do with great pride. EEP INSIDE THE MIN SHAN, home of the giant panda, we visited a little-known tribe sometimes re- ferred to by outsiders as the White Horse ‘Tibetans (page 289). The name derives from the White Horse Valley, one of the areas they inhabit. The tribe calls itself the Di peaple—a name that appears in ancient Chinese histor- ies, Yet all written records of the Di end around the year 4.p. 420, more than 15 centuries ago, Though the Di have no written language, they enjoy a colorful oral history. Chen Yuanguang, a Chinese authority on the Di, told me a delightful legend purporting to explain the people's habitual singing. In ancient times, runs the legend, heaven ‘bestowed on humans an abundance of rice covering the entire earth like snow. But a woman accidentally stepped on some grains of rice, thereby offending God. God sent the ox toearth to announce His punishment for mankind: Each person was to comb his or her hair three times a day and eat but one mealaday. ‘By mistake the ox ordered combing of the hair once-a day and eating of three meals.a day. God was much angered and banished the ox to earth to toil and repent. The ox begged for mercy. First, he claimed he would be ill-treated on earth. God therefore gave the ox hornsto defend himself. Second, the ox worried about insect bites. God gave him a tail to drive the insects away. Third, the ox was afraid ofbeing punished if he was Peoples af China’s Far Provinces tooversleep. So Gad asked the people tosing tothe oxto keep himawake, Tothisday, the Di always sing whenever they plow the fields with their oxen. traveled south, following the river called Min Jiang. Along the way every ‘ox we came across seemed somehow a bit special, On its upper reaches the Min Jiang is spanned by suspension bridges, cantilever bridges, and bridges consisting of nothing more than a pair of slender steel cables. At one point we stopped to admire the skill ofa man crossing the river by means of such a “bridge,” He was shuttling oods back and forth between the two banks, oblivious of the foaming torrent below. After much coaxing by some of the local residents, T agreed to cross over the Min Jiang hanging ‘on to this master acrobat. ‘There was a cable for each direction, and each was slanted down so that gravity did most ofthe work. Starting from the high end of our cable, we pushed off with me clutch- ing my companion as we sat on a rope sling suspended from a trolley running along the top of the cable, As we slid downward, the cable gave off an eerie whistling sound. Near the far bank our forward momen- tum ceased, and we were suspended in mid air at a dip in the cable caused by our own weight. Relinquishing the pulley handle, my partner grasped the cable and pulled us hand over hand up the last few metersto the bank. As my feet touched the earth, I wiped my sweating forehead. Had there been any other way to make the return crossing, I would gladly have accepted it. Ournext stopwas the homeland of asmall ethnic minority of some 100,000 people known as the Qiang, who live north of Chengdu in Sichuan Province. The villages of the Qiang resemble fortifications, with slender watchtowers that rise as high as 13 stories, or rougtily 30) meters. From a dis- tance the towers look like factory smoke- stacks, They are usually located at the most Strategic places, on cliffs or precipices with the farthest view, The abundance of these’ towers, which today are used mostly fot grain storage, attests toa darker period in Qiang history. Fes: WHITE HORSE VALLEY we 305What about your husband,” I asked answered, smil I gatherec smile that thenoming still an ini ing milk. How long will it be be Il fall and the wited ng and Luo and n or lunch, Among other things tortilla-like bread, « stapleSoon we saw our first truck with Yunnan li- ind Zhang brought our jeep to asudden halt. Heand Luo rushed over tothe truck driver to ask for the late: On Aug 10 kilometers (8,000 miles) after we had Kunming—we entered the city once more, Zhang and Luo were-home, and I too needed break, to see my family and to plan the rest of my travels in remote areas of Chi- na. On the first of September I said good-bye to Zhang and Luo, then flew to Hong Kong fora few days to see my parents and cont ued to my home in Angeles nse plate: news from { 31—82 days and some back in Kunming, making ments for the final leg of my j visited ous trip, I had three more I wanted Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi. F reasons Luo could not join us, with Zhang dition, Jin Xuezhong, means “gold.” Guizhou Province is noted for being one of the poorest regions in China. Mention Guizhou to almost any Chinese, and he will inevitably quote the ancient description of the province: sre are Tot three di clear sky, the land has not three li [1 meters) of flat area, and the people have not three taels of silve The description is unkind, though aecu- rate in one respect: Guizhou is an up-and- down land. The endless mountains and canyons that divide the province have doubtless contributed to its human makeup of distinctive ethnic groups, Of these the people know symbolic of Guizhou Province. ‘There are-an estimated 5,000,000 Miao in China, more than half of them in Guizhou The Miao, in fact, extend far beyond Chi- na’s borders, into Laos, Vietnam, and Thai- land, where they were driven centurie: by the Han Chinese. In these ai they re! to themselvecas Hmong, though they are related to the Miao of China. Some anthro- pologists claim there are close toa hundred distinctive subgroups of Miao in China alone, each speaking a slightly different dia- its own traditions and ive provinces on the previ- ee family T set out 1e expe yhose family name nd anew as Mino have become almost 3 AZO r lect and maintainin customs, 308 Asecret passes between lamas in a courtyard of Labrang Lamasery. A theological center of learning since 09, its six colleges once taught a National Geographic, March 1984fecorated staff, tified (above righ re burn fi real (above), to rei rit ti Blue, and s based on ANLON( hou, Zhan hostel, E on this was the day througho The m ended for the most part in the late ‘ ¢ areas of the nation ly, ifatall zhou lags behind National Geographic, MareI remarked that one did not expeet to go much jewelry in a poor province like Guizhou, and the mother seemed surprised “We do not think of such things as wealth,” she said, “for we would never con: sider selling them. We Miao would rather starve than part with such possessions.” Jasked ifnew jewelry wasever made, and the lady replied: “A little. Ifyou can prove you are a member of a minority group, you can buy « small amount of precious metal such as silver from the government for 18 yuan [$9 U. S.| per tel. With that we occa- sionally make new jewelry.” TEN IN OUR TRAVELS through Guizhou we would ask how far it was to # particular point or to the next village. People would reply in terms of money, suchas sankuaiyimao, which means three yuan and ten fen—roughly $1)38. We ally realized that the figures referred to the bus fare to such places. At China's bus rates, three yuan can represent half a day's journey In eastern Guizhou lics the town of Chonganjiang, named after the river that flows through it. We had not planned on stopping there until Zhang noticed two strikingly dressed figures down a side alley in the town. By now both Zhang and Jin were well aware of my great interest in mi nority peoples, and they were always an the lookout for anything unusual What Zhang had seen was a pair of teen- age girls buying vegetables al a street stand. Sach wore colorful and attractive headgear: a batik scarf of blue-and-white design. with a carved silver headband around it Each headdress was crowned witha redtop- knot, and the entire unit was secured by @ single carved silver skewer. The g wore blue apronlike dresses with elaborate embroidery In Putonghua, I asked the girls their nationality. They answered politely that they belonged to the Ge people. Until that moment I had never even heard of a Ge people among China's minorities, and 1 Was frankly exeited Myexcitement was short-lived, however, for after telling me they lived in the moun- 4in village of Fengxiang, which means the girls declined to maple fragrance Peoples if China's Far Provinces let me accompany them on the seven kilometer trip home, No, they explained, it was too far away inside the mountains 1 felt desperate, for here were two mem bers of a minority group that was entir new tome, and moreover the was striking Finally one of the girls agreed they would ride in our jeep if we would pick up their father along the way. 1 instantly 3 High-wire act without a net takes a gyelist over the Dadu River on a cable bridge in Sichuan Province. He hangs from @ traveling pulley’s handle, to which he has also tied his bike, At the low point, he will pull himself up the remaining distance with one arm. Above Sichuan's Min Jiang a group of the Qiang minority hews a road out of solid rock (facing page)Follow nuinely 'Itisofgr outside should kr le from, Liao said the past the Ge peopl so little nown that we were n ed as a Sep arate minority, Inste ave been cl, dasasubgroupe ft they-are different , ed how many Ge t red, “About 70,000, nearly in Guizhou Province and half of the that num! in this area. Our farm commune h: 11,000 members and mare that ‘ou want to the largest Ge come end of the road we fir I: A NARROW VALLEY al ordered, 1s from all ov crowded around our jeep and the usas Liao led the way through a labyrinth of paths to his h it wa Lsufficient toa Liao, d how ¢ to visit. Some hai jinted onth drinking ata fi s the more evidence that generous has no electricit as We listened to 7 ceompanied by twoald Iwasa and someone s the valley, [rushed outto find out what was wron se Tcouldn't see beyond a few me: ters. Lian followed me out of the house laughing atmy confusion Don't w he said. “It's merely the man in charge of environmental-protection proy a.. Until rec were being felled in ourarea, a ver was s¢ gam y too acerned. The villagers met to find of makin some wa everyone aware of the need for conservation. We decided omen ol oun the new tree-protection policy ina way thateyeryone dn would ¢. Morning is the most peaceful ume in the village 1 this way we can be sure all will pay attention to the mes: From thew feel sure it’s get After a day a bye to Mr, Lio « hope that when we nex! ople would be offici ge woke me up ethnic minority group on vernment tion and they would have a far better chance of pr parts Hei t group xi Prov Miao do net language Long, long ago, runs the legend, the lived in the same a he Han Chinese. But the Han were t for the Mi co the latter decic They to move awa: e.and finally that, as they hai were unable to cross ne legend, the ncharacters, the water pondering { water spiders walk ithe surface. They said to the s¢ little thin water, why can't w So the Miao tried, with the result th 1y drowned. In struggling to regair they swal ater, a ong. with th Howed all the written characters nea Laughter breaks the pall for three Het Mi National Geographic an older He March }day the Miao have been without any written language. Along the roads of central Guizhou, one cannot fail to notice a-great variety of Hei Miao. Every 50 kilometers or so we found that the women’s dress and appearance va ied. There were those with long skirts, those. with short skirts, hair done in a knot, hair done in more claborate coiffure, fabrics of chocolate brown, others of dark purple. In this same area there are Hei Miao who live in the mountains and those who live along the rivers, At the town of Shibing we saw: both groups, beginning with the River Blei Miag hibing is the seat of government of Shi- bing County, and 1 was warmly entertained by the county officials. The county chief, Luo Guobin, isa Miao, asis his deputy, Li Xinyi. The county secretary, Luo Hong- xiang, and the security chief, Lio Guochao, are also Miao. During my stay at Shibing it became obvious that the Miao had a virtual monopoly on high office Two rivers, Qingshui andthe Wayang, flow through the county. In these two rivers are giant salamanders that weigh as much ax 30 kilograms, or 66 pound each. The Chinese and the Miao call these huge salamanders wawayu, literally “baby fish.” The term derives not from the crea- ture’ssize butits appearance, whichsuppos- edly reminds one of an infant. In addition, the salamander hes a cry like that of a baby The River Hei Miao know a number of recipes for turning wawayu into delicacies While taking a cruise along the Wuyang River, we purchased three salamanders, each costing five yuan ($2.50) and weighing approximately two kilograms. I was told that in Guangzhou (Canton), where any ex otic food finds a ready buyer, a salamander of such size can bring 25 yuan At Pingzhai Commune, a mountain set tlement near Shibing, we were welcomed with a formal reception. Young women came in their finest embroidered costumes Inmarried girls wore especially lavish en- sembles of silver jewelry, adorning them from head to waist, Each collection of orm ments must have weighed more than fiv kilograms. Huge pans of sticky rice were served to the guests. This ceremonial dish is called Peoples af China's Far Provinces ‘National treasure, one of China's largest waterfalls (facing page) cascades 67 meters (220 feet). Namo Huangguoshu, “yellow fruit tree,” for the oranges of Guizhou Province, it is a major tourist attraction. A high school in an adjacent village of the Bouyei, 0.2.1 million minority whose fashianable matrans partially shave their heads (below), naw mars the best view, Mirafful of Bouyet influence, off dare not move simeifan—"sisters _rice"—signifying the closeness of two sisters sticking together. Part of the rice was dyed yellow, the other part was natural color. The yellow dye was said to keep the “little demons," or mischie- vous gods, from recognizing that it and whisking it away to satisfy their hunger. HE MIAO are an exceptionally musi- | al people. In the evening [went tothe main square of the commune, where young men and women meet after dark to sing songs. of courtship to one another. Miao songs are distinguished by their simplicity of tone and their changeable lyrics. The melo- dies are few in number, and the words are composed extemporan¢ously to suit any Phe directness of expression and si cerity of thought make most of the songs beautiful in their innocence. raditionally the Miao have been exceed- ingly superstitious, with strong beliefs in both spirits and demons. The former they, as ricemay nat ¢ onverst herself as a regul: Jiely, let. alone cohabit. The bride member of the family uest and sleeps ¢ OF THE MOST elationship begin. But art of short duration. After eturns once mare to her me, This h p lasts until that the wife fakes up pett lence in her husband’s home and countof red cloth and of hang from the dragon's hor n and Zhan nd T left Shi ing f debt and pi le HE SOUTHEASTERN CORNER of tizhou lives another colorft nd ges) put the best the Han Chine tumn Clut the kitchen ge farewell. Pe hundred-k meter radius two festivals. Dresse tumes, the cro ze pistols d Autumn Clubs date back among the Dong peopl pposed to e both safe year many such festiv: s a colorful In silversmith masterworks, River{ power c exeelle been so. assimilat Han culture that the nble the Han Chinese in appearance. Very little is ve their lang) ied in Chi was historic notion of tl le On the return trip to Kunm eft Guizhou Pr and entered Guangxi. At Guilin T again reentered the famili that I had bare ned over the future of its minority peoples, the preservation of ch cultures is still ne of rapid change. A Mulam, the ch ible, How mu tity should be compromi tio 2 we culture, awar janges are al- cul. d forthe the surface of those equ -oples id, cultiare x acy srt tural ide 3uilin, at Luc the area of the minority peo To me this the Mulam, The Mulam have at ng, we passed sake of mc ways be the unanswer- 0 brie ro ple known Peoples of China's Far Praee MORNING, in the soft, Zz coral flush of daybreak, alaser dawns on Mars. Forty miles abave frigid deserts of red stone and dust, it flares in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Infrared sun- light kindles in this gas a self-intensifying ra- diance that continuously generates as much energy asa thousand nuclear reactors, Our eyesare blind toit, but from sunrise tosunset Mars bathes in dazzling lasershine, The red planet may have lased in the sun for eons before astronomers identified its sky-high natural laser in 1980. The wonder isthat itsexistence wasunknown for so long. In 1898, in The War of the Worlds, H. G, Wells scourged earth with Martian invaders and a laserlike death ray. Pitiless, this “ghost of a beam oflight” blasted brick, fired trees, and pierced iron as if it were paper. In 1917 Albert Einstein speculated that under certain conditions atoms or molecules could absorb light or other radiation and then he stimulated to shed their borrowed energy. Th the 1950s Soviet and American physicists independently theorized how this borrowed energy could be multiplied and re- paid with prodigious interest. In 1960 Theo- dore H. Maiman invested the glare ofa flash lamp in a rod of synthetic ruby; from that first laser on earth he extorted a burst of crimson light so brilliant it outshone thesun. More than. light bolted from Maiman's ruby. It inspired new lasers, and their designs and powers quickly diverged like a sunbeam transiting a prism, ‘Today the spectrum of laser types extends from those as large as football fieldsto others tinier than a pinhead. Their light ranges fram invisible—ultraviolet and infrared— through all colors of the rainbow. A few fire in pulses lasting but quadrillionths of a sec- ond; many could beam steadily for decades. Like Wells's ray, some lasers can focus light toafine point bright enough to vaporize iron orany other earthly material, concentrating energy on it a million times faster and more intensely than a nuclear blast. Others do not emit enough energy to coddle an ee, From the first, likely uses for the laser have flashed into people's heads at a large fraction of the speed of light. Hundreds of ideas have proved better directed than an carly one—the laser eraser, ‘Newspapers and the GEOGRAPHIC use la- sers to transfer phetographs and maps to printing plates, FBI lasers disclose, even 40 yearsafter, the otherwise undetectable print left by a fugitive fingertip. Lasers weld car parts, husk peanuts, and cut teeth in saws. They also drill holes in baby-bottle nipples. ‘Often lasers are the preferred tools of sur- geons in the operating room. Holograms— laser-light patterns recorded somewhat like photographs (pages 364-77})—crente images: in three dimensions. Underground, glass A gathering force of precision and power, lasers are unlocking @ technological treasure chest for human benefit. To dramatize their multifaceted nature, «technician uses mirrors and a prismlike optical device to split the beams of krypton and argon lasers into a rainbow spectrum, 335fibers carry laser beams that ¢ach transmit hundreds of phone calls. Overhead, lasers have tracked volcanic gases, gauged winds surrounding Midwest storms... and con- firmed the natural laser above Mars, ‘That last service of the laser reveals it to be something more fundamental than asim- ple invention. Thus it promises remarkable insights and technologies, Fresh in hand or foreseeable by the laser's bright light are: * Action views of viruses, enzymes, and DNA molecules, encoders of the genetic messages that determine hereditary traits © All but unlimited energy from the forced fusion of hydrogen isotopes, in imitation of nuclearreactions fucling the sun. * Ways to quell cancer and open blocked. arteries without distressing the body, * Means to trace one molecule among tril- lions, probe its fastest motions, or coax it to. tailor-make catalysts and drugs, * Faster computers built of smaller circuits, including microscopic light switches: * And—fear weds hope—arms to war in space and blunt nuclear attack on earth “Don't undervalue the laser," says John Asmus, chief laser scientistat Maxwell Lab- oratories in San Diego, California. “Tt har- nesses light, a basic form of energy. We harnessed energy in another way once, and started the industrial revolution, SMUS CITED THIS in his laboratory some months ago, to me and to John the Baptist. In blessing and asifin the flesh, ‘the martyr was hovering with raised right hand justin front ofa laser-illuminated photographic plate. Haloed by laser light in the darkened laboratory, this vision re-created by a hologram was a three- dimensional revelation. Asmus had recorded the image in 1972 in Ttaly, holographing a Lsth-century carving wi consulting on an art-preservation project. Now resurrected, the benedictory ‘Baptist seemed to sanction Asmus’s gospel: “People think of the laser as a mere de- vice, but that’s a narrow perspective. We're learning the potential of light from @ pro- foundly powerful technolo; What makes it so—and lends the laser its name—is“light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” By this means the la- ser marshals light so compellingly that when Einstein penetrated the heart of the matter he rejoiced to a friend, "A splendid light has dawned on me, The physics Einstein found so illumi- nating operates daily in the supermarket product code scanner. [If you cauld view this automated checkout's laser, you wouldssea glass tube filled with helium and neon, Its ends.are sealed by flat, parallel mirrors, one partially transparent and one fully reflec- tive. Centered inside this tube is another; pencil slim, itextends intoa metal sleeve—a cathode that radiates electrons when ener- gized by electricity, The belium-neon la- ser—the kind in widest use be part of a neon “No Vacan But “No: Vacancy” is no laser, and any re- mote likeness pales when anelectric current triggers the cathode. Afterapanseas brief as lightning, it steadily showers electrons into the gas-filled tube. These so excite the heli- um atoms sealed within that they smashinto their neon neighbors, whose own orbiting electrons then jump into arrays more com- plex and energetic than usual. ‘The agitated electrons remain tearranged onlyan instant. They begin almost atonce to fall back into their old, less energetic order, and from each retreating electron there escapes a tiny burst of surplus energy—a photon, the basic unit of light. ‘With no mass but behaving like particles, photons tan usin thesun, toast bread, and— flooding aimlessly and spontaneously from fluorescent sizns—put the rude red glow in “No Vacancy.” But many of the laser's pho- tons are trapped between its mirrors, and lasing begins us they bounce back and forth along the laser's center tube, striking still more neon atoms. Each of these collisions releases another burst of light energy, equal to and in step Charge of the “light” brigade, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis gallop across Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, Georgia, through the magic of laser anienation. Laser beams streak above the audience in a light sftow like those that have pleased crows since soon after the invention of lasers in 1960. National Geographic, March 1984RAYS With extremely shart i asers in this hand, once cleveloped, will wickd Incredibte power a ae iA canroenarit isos acintan in this binnd gave the laser ARGON LASER, RUBY LASER. NEAR INFRARED. LASS 0, LASER FAR INFRARED. LAS MICROWAVES Stimulation of weaves in this Band prodiiced the maser the coherence, and photons—the basic units Fine- tuning ofall radieton-—re aent out lx raguler ranks of one fresuency. Becauise the the spectrum ee ee Pass on eneray anil information. ‘0 KNOW LASERS, one mut first ‘The first devices ty emit concentrated [ now the electromagnetic spectrum, radiation aperated in the Low-energy which ranges from long radio waves microwave frequencie y laser to short, powerfiul gamma rays technology is extending beyond The narrow band of the spectrim we _ultravinlet tow high-energy know as visible, or white, light is made _realmof X ra nigth boasts up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet light. These frequenci s beam can be niodulated into well ag all radiation waves number of wavelengths using or diffused (top teft), much ds noise isa fluorescent dyes (above) like those capacities as a tool forman collection of overlapping, interfering produced at Exciton Chemical Company sounds Loser light (the mechanics are in Ohio, At Hughes Research explained on the following pages) is Laboratories in California, a blue-green organized and concetitrated, like c laser (right) reflected tt.an acute angi single, clear musical note. anneals silicon microchips, while a low. netture’s disorder is given energy red laser monitors the process, 338 National Geographic, March [984Harnessing «Asses light = and molectiles concentrate it, anc it'in powerfil we to emit a ph When an atom (cent In ) expanils the ark oferystat ally transparen| unbridled thode has been intensified the purest fwave \ prismby high-intensity of growing sweeps so mitich eneryy that they an electric discharge, h the dium exit the partially silvered or even nuclear radiation: The photons travel the end, merging as @ powerful rath 0 ce off mirrors at either u rare earth, ina rod met. YAG SER LIGHT is 50 int and pur many scientistie Peerless clean: positions—an the finger on xis and $s Andrew ed myCrustal Dynamics Project at NASA’s God- dard Space Flight Center not far from ‘Washington, D. C. This in turn documents continental drit Continents raft across earth's hot, plastic interior on stiff plates of planetary crust. ‘Where these collide, the earth may quake, islands emerge, or voleanoes erupt. Moun- tains may bulge as one plate dives beneath another, to be melted and reappear cons ‘hence as new crust, flooring fora rising ridge deep in mid-ocean How rapidly does earth spread atits mid- ocean seams? What propels the continents and subily deforms them? Where, precisely, do the crustal plates abut? “Measuring such things exactly is vital,” says Adelman, “Minute motionsin the earth portend vast ones—earthquakes—and.ma- jor energy and mineral resources lie along the boundaries between earth's plates," ‘The lasers at Goddard's Optical Research Facility ride the American plate, With them onamoonlesswutumn night Tkeptaneyeout for the Laser Geodynamics Satellite. LAGEQS orbits more than 3,600 miles high, and with 422 recessed reflectors it re- gembles a silyery, dimpled beach ball. Far beyond my view from inside a portable ob- servatory, LAGEOS was in the Little Dip- per when intercepted by the first pulses of the observatory's neodymium-YAG laser. The laser's usual infrared radiation had been shifted, for less atmospheric absorp- tion, to visible green light. Focused and fired at ten pulses persecond through a tele scope, it flickered hypnotically inside the observatory dome, but shot starward in an illusory solid beam, an emerald pointer aimed so true thatno eye could be blind to its peremptory guidance: “Look, there!" Each pulse was triggered and timed by an atomic clock, synchronized with others at laser trackers in Germany, Japan, Austra lia, .., Round the world that night, lasers waited to wink al LAGEOS Little of their light returns to telescope re- ceivers from the satellite. After filtersscreen out starlight and the sunlight reflected by LAGEOS, the echo of a laser-ranging pulse may be only a solitary photon The U_S. Geological Survey and other federal agencies have more light to work with, ranging to closer targets in tests of Lasers—"A Splendid Light” airborne lasers. These profile terrain too rugged for ground surveys and chart coastal waters more cheaply than ships. OMETIMES remote sensing by laser more resembles chemistry than car- tography. The purity of laser light en- ables it to seek and sense, from miles ‘away, airborne atoms and molecules of pes- ticides, nerve gases, power-plant pollut- ants, and leaking natural gas. Each substance adrift in our atmosphere {and eceans) uniquely identifies itself by ab- sorbing or reflecting light of a distinct wave- length. The purer the searching light, the surerits discovery of a suspect substance, be it dust or water vapor, ozone or oxygen. Directed at oxygen-molecules, such light detection and ranging, or LIDAR, reveals atmospheric pressure and temperature. ‘Thus the laser promises routine and precise meteorological readings in parts of the globe and the atmosphere—the oceans and the jet stream—where weather brews and moves beyond easy and constant watch. A future space shuttle will survey atmospheric pres- sure at cloud tops by laser, and ultimately lasers on satellites may make even 30-day weather forecasts accurate and detailed. Looking ahead to other advances, scien- tists foresee a trio of lasers with great prom- ise—for chemical production, military applications, and biological research. University of Ulingis physicist Keith Bayer attends to “free-electron” tasers. ‘They draw their energy from high-speed streams of electrons not bound to the atoms: or molecules of a lasing dye, gas, ar crystal, Generating free electrons for such lasers takes costly, complex equipment. Out- weighing this, however, is the prospect that free-electron lasers will be tunable over the broadest range of radiation yet—from microwaves to the far ultraviolet, a million- fold difference in wavelength from longest to shortest. Future versions may be tuned, like radios, by spinning adial. “This flexible laser opens fundamentally new ways to do things,” Boyer told me. “It moves chemistry, for instance, beyond the technology of fire and heat." ‘Tn the laboratory laser light already pro- duces some catalysts—chemical additives thatspeedupa — (Continued.on page 348) 343darkness: laser aye surgery IGHT-SAVING shafts of light able to enter the eye without injuring it, lasers are revolitiontzing eye stirgery Using techniq York ophthalmologist Francis L Esperance, eve surgeons ein ploy four levels of laser energy. Exposiire times range from 30 minutes for low-enerxy phatora diation to several billionths of a second! for photodisruption. With microscopic focus beams weld breaka in the retina or seal leaking blood vessels by s— A Splendid Light aod Rigas 1 rT goa onset orate ar photocoagulation, A painless 20-minute operation called an iridectomy relieves the excuse fluid buildup of glaucoma. When an artificial fens ts placed behind the iris, the supportive membrane often ‘grows milicy. A laser beam is pinpointed on the taut tissue in @ series af minute explosions. This photodisruption causes the tissue to unzip anu! part like @ curtain. To destroy an eye tumor, a matt Children’s Hospital surg in Los Angeles (left) guides a tiquid dye laser beara tranarnitted ‘by cen optical fiber. He uses a experimental drug called HPD which is retained by ct cells ard laser-aict radiate the tumor. In photo- vaporization, laser tight of another wavelength déstrays malignant tumors. Bloodless scalpels, lasers. cin make extremely delicate inei- sions, catteriew blood vessels, and leave tissue unaff « few cell widths away. serous vated to photo: 345Beams that heal URGICAL dh arritig afta the su one d H med. procedure éa growing mum practitioners, Using dh pe (right), w the y and operate with damag he flexibte endose the way, ngs (three fluid ction and gts dispersal. A force; Sinuller ope orelack) facil led by a cable viewing i A later, controll by dials to the left of reams an perform directs it. Twiating and nud of the scope; fi¢ can (dentify and e @ bleeding ulcer in in the: The bear is fed through ape by an optical fiber from a laser machine, nid, that might cost spinal cord,-many o, inc micron wide. A human hair by comparixen, f& about 40 1 $20,000 I were previo are provin recepprive to the fai microns wid Lasers are also valuable delicate and healing touch. At diagnpatic tools. At Seattle's the University of Califarnla Harbor View Medical at Irvine, Dr. Michael Be Center vascular specialist Dr. ties the laser's fine-foct Alléni Holloway (right) ity in exper a taser blood-flow meter to loser therapy loser identify areas of critically obstructions and prolong tife od cell puorein Pumors in'the brain and (far right) is only half a d patient. Iung-cancer operation. no cure for cancer, in the leg of 346 National Geographic, March 1984Industry's new precision tool BE ps ee a SeerThe X-ray laser is attractive for the ener- gy ofthe pulseit would fire, At peak energy, this pulse would shatter a missile with ut- most violence. Contemplating it, physicists speak lamely of “explosive disassembly," their tongues tied not by jargon but by gov- ernment secrecy, ‘Equally important, the short wavelength of X rays—down to the scale of the smallest atom—permits them to scatter tellingly from many things of such scale or larger. Moderated X-ray laser pulses would behave asdo the ripples lapping a beach, which re- veal by how they spread out—or diffract— the size and shape of seashells they wash against. Whether for destruction or detection, an X-ray laser would need pumping by an energy source of extremely high intensity. ‘To little avail so far, Lowell Wood uses: 20-trillion-watt Novette; a laser whose heart is a stack of glass disks impregnated with neodymium. But nuclear blasts have reportedly succeeded in underground laser weapon tests conceived at Livermore. Or, ‘an excimer laser might pump the X-ray ver- sion, jolting it with one trillion watts of pow- erdelivered in one-trillionth of a second. At suitable intensities an X-ray laser's swift pulses would be a boon to biologists. ‘Typical X-ray diffraction studies are so slow that they capture only relatively static bio-~ Jogical details. But the X-ray laser could catch a DNA-molecule, enzyme, or virus in ‘action, ot “snapshoot" a living cell. As well, the coherent radiation of an X-ray laser could secord holograms, to render dynamic views in three dimensions, ‘X-ray lasers could revolutionize our view of the world. To be able to see the dynamics of life in finest detail and inthree dimensions would be like removing a blindfold. New theories of disease might result, or life- saving drugs. OCTORS REACHED EARLY for the laser and have not let go of it since. In- deed, their grip has so tightened that today the laser treats patients from head to toe. “The number of things medical lasers can do is past imagining,” says Terry Fuller, head of the nation’s largest laser-surgery research lab at Sinai Hospital of Detroit, 352 ‘There alone last year, surgeons performed 5,000 operations using lasers, In a laser-surgery course in San Francis- co, Dr. Michael Edwards of the University ‘of California sat me at a binocular micro- scope to practice neurosurgery on anesthe- tized rats. The light of the argon laser I pulsed at them through the microscope in- jured the animals much less than if 1 had wielded a scalpel “The laser’s precision outstrips our ability to exploit it,” Edwards said as Laimed blue~ green light pulses with the microscope’s joy- stick. Laser light excels atsurgery because it can be matched for specific effect to body tis- sues of varying sensitivity. ‘The intense light I fired, using’ foot ped= al, severed and cauterized blood vessels but sacrificed no other tissues, because only red. blood cells absorbed it, To vaporize tumors or to melt and rebond torn nerves or blood. vessels, surgeonseuided by red helium-neon. aiming beams use the unseen radiation of carbon dioxide lasers. Tissue vanishes be- neath it in tiny wisps of smoke. In blocked arteries, buildups of calcium and fatty fiber called plaque yield wo laser light much as do red blood cells. Plaque can. so narrow an artery that blood flow halts, resulting in a stroke or heart attack. But a laser-beam catheter threaded into an ar- tery can truly ream it open, blasting at plaque so precisely that the first man to teceive this experimental treatment—for a blocked leg artery last year at Stanford University—went home the next day, with only.aspirin, Doubts remain, however, about such ar terial Isser surgery. Further experiments must determine laser power levels that least puncturing an artery or coagulating blood into a clot ‘Thousands of women have no such reser- vations about gynecological surgery by la- ser, Because of it, theyaremothers. [met the pioneer of laser gynecological surgery, Dr Joseph Bellina, at his Laser Research Foun- dation in New Orleans. “Until a few years ago," Bellina told me, “an infected pélvis or perpetual menstrual bleeding usually prompted a hysterecto- my—sterilization. Laser treatment now gives people a chance to have children, by preserving internal organs." National Geographic, March 1984hein, as 1saw Bel- laser light can reach and activ or just under the dissolve, Doz h attack, with Or by reconstructin; lina rebuild the pinhead-size tips of ayoung — the and blocked Fallopian ing a carbon dioxide laser, he cers w under 5 sculpted blunted and scarred stumps into painful and sometimes disfiguring es of pink flesh, delicate “fingers” to fects of chemotherapy and X caress the ovaries in se fex gger than the smallest g {. Microsur- HOTOCHEMISTRY—any chemical zht have lasted seven hours took change driven by light—i 1 woman conceived six place of nature, Thi photosynthesis b ight to food, or oft and collea af vision enabling you to read ster Medic rk stain cells with a Muorese and analyze them with unique lase ner. Cells whose nuclei fluoresce abnormal Lasers y may indicate cancer; they absorb more perimental chemistry the laserlight. This ard 1 preeminent ple may ersity. The very way hanged scientists use’ the ly or contral these Center in Small wonder th tdye and its light t an- other chemical reactions. ubiquitous in ex: by Rich mist at ed ave becc dyeand glow 20 few cells to reveal cance ably—critical because, if detected carly it revealin we could cervical cancer is nearly alw ile never before see, make, or measure Experimental therapy for cancer pat Zare conceived laser-ine fluore lie rlaser-sensitivedye—hemato- cence, or LIF, an ultrasensitive method of x chemicals J liquids to the correct wav rlig inte ‘its. the ferivative, or HPD. Prepared detecti blood, HPD injected into the rbed and exereted by: all cells, cancerous. HPD remains lon: however, and whe body is at a solut healthy ar in malignant c of un odd molecule th jon.ot Incriminating