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Distraction Of The Clones
Pasty skin, bald heads and mind control pretty much sum up
the future of the human race, according to
the Economist. |
The controversy over cloning has forced us to think about the
meaning and value of "life" as we know it. It has also
drawn our attention away from other developments in (believe it
or not!) even weirder science. (Could the clone people be deliberately
distracting us with Dollies to allow the maddest scientists to
work in peace?) The following quiz is designed to make sure everyone's
up to speed, not to mention appropriately freaked out.
Which of the following is NOT a scientific advancement reported
within the past sixteen months?
- Bomb-sniffing bees. The Pentagon has trained swarms
of honey-bees to detect bombs, landmines, and other hidden explosives.
- Remote-controlled rats. Scientists steer and guide
rats by sending stimuli to electrodes implanted in their brains.
- Monkey think, cursor do. Rhesus monkeys with brain
implants move computer cursors with their minds.
- The Man think, people do. The CIA investigates the
use of substances such as psychedelic mushrooms for mind-control
weapons.
- Robots building robots. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's
Center for Automation Technologies uses big robots to build
microscopic robots, which in turn will build more tiny robots.
- Mystery meat. Scientists grow chunks of fish by soaking
them in liquid extracted from unborn calves.
- Hello, Dr. Chips. A microchip embedded in the skin
emits a fre-quency containing a verification number allowing
authorities to access an individual1s complete medical data.
- And Harvard said, "Let us stop light." Physicists
in Cambridge succeed in slowing, and ultimately bringing to
a dead halt, light itself.
ANSWER: #4. That was 1955.
- Lynn
Harris
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