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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