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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 1982)
>eech • •••••• W\NTER 1982 BEYOND 5 €MA^pviAt, BY BOB WOODS A Toast to Science Cutty Sark, of whisky fame, diverted some attention away from bar bottles and toward laboratory beakers, cul minating in the recent presentation of the first annual Cutty Sark Science Award. The recipient is Dr. Arnold J. Lande, a surgeon at the University of Texas. Lande is honored for develop ing three artificial organs: an implant able artificial gill that could enable fu ture divers to work indefinitely under water; a portable artificial kidney that can be worn as a bracelet; and a heart-lung device that will pump and oxygenate blood. Richard J. Newman, president of Buckingham Corp., the U.S. importer of Cutty Sark, states that the award was created to spotlight individuals whose work was accomplished out side the established subsidized re search structure — and therefore might not already be acclaimed by the scientific community. Members of the nation's science press nominated 83 scientists; seven finalists were chosen by the editors of Science Digest, after which a panel of six distinguished sci entists reviewed the work, and named Dr. Lande the 1981 honoree. Dr. Lande's artificial lung uses liquid fluorocarbons to carry oxygen to the diver and expel carbon dioxide from the bloodstream. The diver wears the gill in his or her backpack, and the gill is connected to an external tank. The artificial gill connects to the diver via a skin-line tracheostomy in the windpipe, and to the large vein and artery in the groin. The system offers deep-sea divers the possibility of a closed-circuit breathing system that eliminates the CO 2 buildup that leads to the "bends." The artificial kidney is a miniaturiza tion of currently available dialysis ma chines which, utilizing sorbent-based technology, filter out harmful toxins from malfunctioning kidneys with a mixture of silicon and charcoal that absorbs impurities. Lande's bracelet- size device performs a constant dialysis, rather than the periodic dialysis from larger systems. The bracelet is worn on the wrist and is ac tivated by sorbent cartidges that can be renewed several times a day. To eliminate the accumulation of dangerous blood clots associated with the implantation of artificial lungs, Dr. Lande has developed an artificial heart-lung combination. The artificial lung acts as a centrifugal pump to spin a self-cleaning artificial lung. Entrepreneurs on Campus Incubator Space Project is not a NASA program for an extraterrestrial mater nity ward. Quite to the contrary, it's a very grown-up program at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, the oldest engineering college in the nation, and was designed to set up small busi nesses on campus. The long-term goal of the project, according to R.P.I., is to strengthen the ties between business and education. This signals the increased fusion of business and academics. An early example of the trend occurred in the 1950's when a Stanford University- built research park evolved into north ern California's Silicon Valley. More re cently, M.l.T. and Harvard went into the genetic engineering business. But R.P.I.'s program is unique in of fering low-rent space on campus, plus access to computers, libraries, and consultation from the faculty. What the school's administration hopes to get from the deal is attention, and po tential business, for its Capital District Technology Program, set up to in crease Upstate New York's business environment. Among the more promising campus enterprises is Raster Technologies, which company president Lou Doctor reports will soon begin marketing a computer graphics terminal; one esti mate says Raster could have sales of $25 million to $30 million within two years. A few floors below is Power Kenetics Inc., which builds solar collec tors—$300,000 worth in 1980. Bucks in Space American big business is planning to go where no business has gone be fore: outerspace. In conjunction with the development of the Space Shuttle program, NASA has tried to convince manufacturers of the benefits of space industrialization. In fact, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronau tics has identified some 35 potential products that might profitably be pro duced off-planet, although only four warrant serious consideration before the turn of the century. TRW Inc. is slated to deliver three mini-factories to NASA by 1985, after already spending $30 million on re search and development. TRW scien tists envision the manufacture of products such as metals that float, super-strong alloys, and perfect semiconductor crystals. Another prom ising area is pharmaceuticals. (See "Gray Flannel Spacesuits" feature in this issue.) R&D costs can be staggering and prohibitive to smaller firms since it's estimated that a return on investment in space ventures will take seven or eight years. Undaunted, a small Miami electronics company. Microgravity Re search Associates Inc., is working on a process for making perfect crystals in space — an impossibility on Earth be cause of gravity—for use in transistors and semiconductor products. Westinghouse Electric Corp. scien tists contend that glass manufactured in space would be bubble-free and ultra pure, making it superior to Earth-produced products, and could be used in hi-tech optical applications such as lasers, photographic lenses and optical fibers. A particularly far-flung vision foresees an orbiting fleet of giant solar power satellites. At $21 billion apiece (up to $70 billion would have to be spent to make the system pay off) each SPS would generate 5 gigawatts of power beamed to Earth in micro- wave form; the entire U.S. has a Beyond Reason is a special section resen/ed for contributions from our readers: send us information on unusual experiments, occurrences, products—documented, real, but mind-boggling. Send the items (no more than 500 words apiece; anything longer could be a feature, so send us a query) to Beyond Reason, 1680 North Vine, Suite 900, Hollywood, CA 90028. Hoover Want a Cracker? BY KIEL STUART H e says his own name ("Hoover"), "How are you?" "Get out of here" and "Hey," among other things, but if he sat on your shoulder to nibble soda crackers, you'd probably suffer severe trauma. Hoover is a 10-year-old, 200-pound Harbor Seal. Now residing in Boston's New Eng land Aquarium, Hoover mimics human speech, and is believed to be the only mammal to do so. The orphaned Hoover was rescued 10 years ago off the coast of Maine by Mr. and Mrs. George Swallow. The Aquarium adopted him almost immediately, and he began babbling in 1974. When his noises began to resemble human speech in 1976, volunteers and staff encouraged Hoover in his oratorial ef forts. Naturally, research is under way to determine why and how Hoover has this gift. It is interesting to speculate on what new vistas this could open up in interspecies communication, and whether Hoover will pass his talent on to future seal generations. However, his sole offspring thus far is not saying any thing. • The Neurophone Story BY G. BATZ While most of us experience audio per ception with our ears, there are some people who, thanks to the work of an Arizona scientist, have found a new way: through the skin. Dr. G. Patrick Flanagan of Tucson has invented a bio-electronic machine he calls the "Neurophone," which trans mits electrically processed sounds into the skin, then to the nervous system, direct to the brain, bypassing the nor mal auditory system. The device allows deaf people — even those with eighth cranial nerve damage — to "hear." How is this possible? "The current hypothesis is based upon the fact that the skin is embryonically the source of all human sense organs," explains Dr. Flanagan. "The human ear evolves out of the convolutions of the skin of an embryo in the womb, and since the skin is the precursor of the ears, it should be capable of hearing." Here is a simplified explanation of the Neurophone's operation: the de vice takes an audio signal, converts it to a 60-volt square wave, and then pro cesses it through a zero crossing detec tor. From there the signal travels to two electrodes which produce a 20-volt electrical field. When this current is in troduced to the skin, the signal mod ulates through the nervous system, sending the information directly to the brain. Research conducted with biological energy measuring systems, including an "Acupuncture Energy Analyzer" which Dr. Flanagan has developed, "indicates that continued use of the Neurophone puts the entire acupuncture meridian system into perfect balance." The Neurophone might also provide the technological foundation for the development of the direct access pro cess for all humans and for communi cation between brain and computer. Dr. Flanagan invented the first Neurophone at the age of fourteen. By the time he turned seventeen, he had also invented a guided missile detector that was purchased by the U.S. Gov ernment, a transistorized muscle stimulator for use in outerspace, and was named one of the nation's top ten scientists by Life magazine. Now, at age 36, after many years of research, Dr. Flanagan has developed the eleventh model of the Neurophone, which he markets from his "Source of Innergy" laboratory/business, along with his many other inventions. He fre quently publishes a newsletter, which is available free of charge. Write to: Source of Innergy, 9989 E. Morrill Way, Tucson, AZ. 8571S generating capacity of 600 gigawatts. A number of U.S. aerospace com panies, including Grumman, Rockwell, and Boeing, have designed SPS sys tems. Oddly enough, one of the major roadblocks to these efforts is the Shut tle program itself—the only tried and true component so far. All of the pro cesses discussed here will be deployed by Shuttles. With increased federal budget cutbacks taking place at NASA, leaving the space agency with about half the money it needs for the Shuttle program alone, some of the target dates may be hard to meet. Modern Times Isaac Asimov proposed ground rules for robot behavior in his famous tome (Continued on page 8) FEATURES SCIENCE FICTION ON TELEVISION What went wrong? 8 TECHNICAL ENGLISH IS STILL ENGLISH ... and a handy tool, when not abused 10 FICTION Blymut Eleven (Green Eyes) 12 FIGHTING IT OUT IN SPACE The Pentagon's star wars 16 SHUTTLING FOR DOLLARS Big business goes into orbit 18 DEPARTMENTS INPUT Letters & comments 4 OUTPUT Latest science news 5 BEYOND REASON A talking seal; the Neurophone 5 WAY BEYOND Dungeons & Dragons—dangerous to your health? 14 ON SITE The great Southwest (especially Texas): lifestyle, geography, and job opportunities 22 THE COVER "Jupiter as seen from Europa" is one of many dazzling paintings by premier space artist Don Dixon.