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![In October, California voters did something that will
have long-term ramifications for their state. No, we’re
not talking about the election of actor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, but the rejection of Proposition 54,
which would have voided requirements for govern-
ment-affiliated programs to record the race of partic-
ipants. Medical groups and physicians had claimed
that the measure would have blocked doctors from
tracking and treating diseases
that afflict various racial groups
differently. C. Everett Koop, for-
mer U.S. surgeon general, even
described the vote as a “life-and-
death decision” in a television ad.
The article by Michael J.
Bamshad and Steve E. Olson in
this month’s issue [“Does Race
Exist?” on page 78] calls into
question Koop’s dire assertion.
Commonly used racial and eth-
nic categories (such as “African-
American,” “white” and “His-
panic”) are often meaningless when it comes to de-
termining a person’s DNA makeup. Genetics can be
used to sort most people roughly into categories ac-
cording to the geographic region where they were
born, but populations that are the result of recent mi-
grations and that have had a great deal of intermix-
ing—such as those in South India and the U.S.—can-
not be neatly parsed. Self-described African-Ameri-
cans, for example, can have anywhere between 20 and
100 percent genetic heritage from Africa, whereas 30
percent of Americans who consider themselves
“white” have less than 90 percent European ancestry.
Yet self-described race is being used as a surrogate
for genetic differences in research. The U.S. Food and
Drug Administration has issued a draft “Guidance for
Industry” suggesting that pharmaceutical and bio-
technology companies collect data on the race of vol-
unteers in clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy
of new treatments. The document recommends that
companies ask study participants to identify their race
according to the categories used by the U.S. Census.
The FDA’s proposed guidelines have elicited out-
cries from many interested parties, including J. Craig
Venter of the Center for the Advancement of Ge-
nomics in Rockville, Md. Venter—whose previous
company, Celera, issued the first rough sequence of
the human genome—wants the FDA to scrap the pro-
posed guidelines and to advise companies instead to
collect genetic information from each individual in a
clinical trial. Using self-identified race as a surrogate
for testing a person directly for a relevant trait is akin
to recording the average weight of a group rather than
weighing each individual, Venter and his colleague Su-
sanne B. Haga write in the July 25 issue of Science.
The complicating factor, of course, is money.
Companies assert that genetic testing costs too much
right now to be feasible as part of every clinical trial.
And it is clear that racial differences in health exist: a
disproportionate number of African-American men
develop prostate cancer, for example, whereas white
women are more prone than black women to breast
cancer. The question is whether those variations can
be attributed largely to genetics or to continuing race-
based disparities in income, education or other factors.
Until the advent of a truly egalitarian society, race
will always be a proxy for deeper differences among
groups. But the importance of racial identity should
not be overinterpreted in clinical trials—particularly
when those racial descriptors turn out to be such poor
reflections of a person’s genetic heritage. The bottom
line is: when you read or hear about a new health find-
ing based on race, question it.
14 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DECEMBER 2003
LWA-DAWN
TARDIF
Corbis
SAPerspectives
THEEDITORSeditors@sciam.com
Racing to Conclusions
IS RACE linked
to health?
COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/18189040-250521141604-6f1f09e4/75/200312-Does-Race-Exist-Scientific-American-8-2048.jpg)
![who sought to observe and explain nature
independently of the gods. At the other
werereligiousfundamentalists.Midwaybe-
tweenweredevoutrationalistssuchasPlu-
tarch. Though serving as a priest of Apollo,
Plutarch tried to reconcile science and reli-
gionbypositinganaturalworldwithitsown
laws and properties that could be used by
the gods for their purposes. For example,
this line of thinking might suggest that
ApollousedthenaturalexhalationatDelphi
to stimulate the oracle.
BRAINS ON THE MIND
“Rethinking the ‘Lesser Brain,’” by
James M. Bower and Lawrence M. Par-
sons, is an excellent overview of the
new and evolving science of the cere-
bellum. A number of recent studies sug-
gest that the cerebellum’s role is to ex-
pedite the automating of motor and
cognitive skills. If certain skills become
automatic, the cerebral cortex can
spend more time thinking, acquiring
new skills, or refining and improving
existing skills. Maybe dysfunction or
absence of the cerebellum slows down
the automating process to a point
where it may take much longer to de-
velop or where it may never be
achieved. Either circumstance could
take a toll on cerebral performance, af-
fecting connections between the sens-
es and physical functions as well as the
ability to organize, create, and com-
plete thoughts and tasks. This certain-
ly seems to be the case for the cognitive
and motor functioning of patients who
have cerebellar dysfunctions.
D. R. Rutherford
Sheffield, England
While reading the article, I was struck
by the idea that the cerebellum is basi-
cally analogous to an input-output
buffer in electronics. Electronics data
acquisition equipment most often has
some kind of signal-handling buffer. It
allows the acquisition equipment to
gather simultaneous inputs and to
“precondition” the information so the
main system can handle it more easily.
Many of the findings from recent stud-
ies would imply this same kind of func-
tionality for the cerebellum.
Kevin Stokes
Jasper, Ind.
CALCULATING DISASTER
In Perspectives [“Houston, You Have
a Problem”], the editors note that the
piece of foam insulation indicted in the
shuttle disaster “slammed into the ...
wing at more than 500 miles an hour.”
When the foam piece separated from
the rocket, it was traveling at the same
speed as the shuttle. I presume that at
one minute and 21 seconds into the
flight, the rocket is in pretty thin air and
the distance from the breakaway point
to the shuttle wing is on the order of
tens of feet. How could the relative
speeds of the foam and the shuttle di-
minish by 500 mph so quickly?
Tom Sahagian
via e-mail
THE EDITORS REPLY: The air was thin but
not nonexistent. The shuttle had reached
an altitude of just over 20 kilometers,
where the air density is roughly 8 percent
of its sea-level value. Once the foam sepa-
rated,theairflowblewitback.Asimpledrag
calculationshowsthatthe foaminitiallyac-
celerated at approximately 3,000 meters
per second per second relative to the shut-
tle.Atthatrate,itwouldhavereachedarel-
ative velocity of more than 300 meters per
second in the 0.1 second it took to fall 20
meters.Inpractice,thefoamdeceleratedas
itwassweptupintheflow,soithitthewing
at 240 meters per second (540 mph)—
which matches what the launch cameras
saw.Theanalysisappearsinsection3.4of
the Columbia Accident Investigation Board
report and accompanying documents
(such as www.caib.us/news/documents/
impact–velocity.pdf).
ERRATUM In “Information in the Holo-
graphic Universe,” by Jacob D. Bekenstein,
the William Blake quotation should have
read “see a world in a grain of sand,” not
“see the world in a grain of sand.”
www.sciam.com
COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/18189040-250521141604-6f1f09e4/75/200312-Does-Race-Exist-Scientific-American-12-2048.jpg)
![DECEMBER 1953
RADIO TELESCOPES—“The young science
of radio astronomy began with investiga-
tors simply picking up ‘noise’ from the
sky. But about a year and a half ago a sin-
gle significant note was discerned through
the din. Today listening posts all over the
world are tuning in on this high-pitched
monotone at 1420 megacycles, and from
it they are obtaining a new picture of the
universe. The signal carries information
about the hydrogen floating in space. One
of the first puzzles the new hydrogen tele-
scopes [see illustration] are seeking to un-
ravel is the manner in which our galaxy is
rotating. Jan H. Oort, H. C. van de Hulst
and C. A. Muller have already
discerned a spiral arm struc-
ture of hydrogen clouds in the
Milky Way system.”
MODERN MIND—“Is modern
life driving many people in-
sane? One way to get at the
question is to examine the
mental health of a secure, sta-
ble society. The Hutterites, an
isolated Anabaptist religious
sect of the North American
Middle West, provide an ide-
al social laboratory of this
kind, and they cooperated
generously in the interest of
science. We did not find a sin-
gle Hutterite in a mental hos-
pital. But this appearance of
unusual mental health did not
stand the test of an intensive
screening of the inhabitants.
In short, the Hutterite culture
provided no immunity to
mental disorders. The existence of these
illnesses in so secure and stable a social or-
der suggests that there may be genetic, or-
ganic or constitutional predispositions to
psychosis which will cause breakdowns
among individuals in any society, no mat-
ter how protective and well integrated. —
Joseph W. Eaton and Robert J. Weil”
DECEMBER 1903
PLANE FLIGHT—“On December 17,
Messrs. Orville and Wilbur Wright made
some successful experiments at Kitty
Hawk, N.C., with an aeroplane pro-
pelled by a 16-horsepower, four-cylin-
der, gasoline motor, and weighing com-
plete more than 700 pounds. The aero-
plane was started from the top of a
100-foot sand dune. After it was pushed
off, it at first glided downward near the
surface of the incline. Then, as the pro-
pellers gained speed, the aeroplane rose
steadily in the air to a height of about 60
feet, after which it was driven a distance
of some three miles against a twenty-
mile-an-hour wind at a speed of about
eight miles an hour. Mr. Wilbur Wright
was able to land on a spot he selected,
without hurt to himself or the machine.
This is a decided step in advance in aeri-
al navigation with aeroplanes.” [Editors’
note: The description of the takeoff and
flight contains several inaccuracies and
probably came from secondary sources.
See “The Equivocal Success of the
Wright Brothers,” on page 94.]
DECEMBER 1853
STEAMSHIP COMMERCE—“On the Pacific
side of South America, steamships are
making good progress in the affections of
the people. The Chilian Congress has
lately adopted, with only one opposing
vote, a project of the Government estab-
lishing a line of steamers between their
coast and Europe. The proposal is to
make an appropriation in aid of a line of
vessels, ‘with an auxiliary steam engine,’
which is to be established between Cal-
dera and Liverpool, touching
at Valparaiso, in the Straits
of Magellan, and at Rio Ja-
neiro; one vessel to sail every
six weeks, and never to be
over 70 days in passage. The
company is made up entirely
of people from the United
States.”
SCIENTIST’S BEST FRIEND—
“Mr. E. Merriam, of Brook-
lyn Heights, N.Y., has made
meteorological records from
threeinstruments,everyhour,
day and night, for eight years,
many of which have been
published in the ‘Scientific
American.’ When inquired,
‘But, sir, how do you manage
to keep your record through
the night hours?’ The reply
was, ‘I retire regularly, my
dog is stationed in the entry
by the clock, and at its strik-
ing immediately scratches at the door. I
rise, make the record, and in a few min-
utes am regularly asleep again until the
dog gives notice of the expiration of an-
other hour.’ We saw the intelligent ani-
mal—and also the evidence of his labor
performed on the door of the sleeping
room of his master.”
22 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DECEMBER 2003
Cosmic Hydrogen ■ Wright Airplane ■ Canine Labor
NEW RADIO TELESCOPE helps to chart the cosmos, 1953
50,100&150 YearsAgo
FROM SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN
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200312 Does Race Exist Scientific American
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- 5. NEW TWISTS ONDNA • 100 YEARS AFTER THE WRIGHT BROTHERS DECEMBER 2003 $4.95 WWW.SCIAM.COM The Day the Earth Burned Reasons to Return to the Moon Genetic Results May Surprise You Science Has the Answer: COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- 6. T E CH N O L O G Y L E A D E R S 55 The Scientific American 50 Our second annual salute to the elite of research, industry and politics whose accomplishments are shaping a better, wiser technological future for the world. B I O L O G Y 78 DoesRaceExist? BY MICHAEL J. BAMSHAD AND STEVE E. OLSON From a purely genetic standpoint, no. Nevertheless, genetic information about individuals’ ancestral origins can sometimes have medical relevance. P L A N E T A R Y S C I E N C E 86 The New Moon BY PAUL D. SPUDIS Recent lunar missions have shown that there is still much to learn about Earth’s closest neighbor. It’s time to go back. A V I A T I O N 94 The Equivocal Success of the Wright Brothers BY DANIEL C. SCHLENOFF The Wrights used aerial control as the key to building and flying the first airplane. But trying to refine their invention in secret nearly cost them their glory. G E O S C I E N C E 98 The Day the World Burned BY DAVID A. KRING AND DANIEL D. DURDA The asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs also ignited a firestorm that consumed the world’s forests. B I O T E C H N O L O G Y 106 The Unseen Genome: Beyond DNA BY W. WAYT GIBBS “Epigenetic” information stored as proteins and chemicals surrounding DNA can change the meaning of genes in growth, aging and cancer. contents december2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume 289 Number 6 features www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 7 78 An amalgam of many races COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- 7. 10 SCIENTIFIC AMERICANDECEMBER 2003 departments 14 SA Perspectives Jumping to conclusions about race. 16 How to Contact Us 16 On the Web 18 Letters 22 50, 100 & 150 Years Ago 26 Innovations A quest to diagnose disease using breath tests. 30 News Scan ■ Keeping science out of the courtroom. ■ The German Stonehenge. ■ A diving probe dares the Marianas Trench. ■ Breaking the sound barrier without the boom. ■ Draft beer on high-tech tap. ■ Panama blazes a bioprospecting path. ■ By the Numbers: Modernization. ■ The Nobel Prizes for 2003. ■ Data Points: Hospital care. 48 Staking Claims Generic medicines made in living factories challenge the capacity of drug regulation. 52 Insights Biological oceanographer Sallie W. Chisholm warns of the global dangers of disrupting phytoplankton, the cells that populate the seas. 114 Working Knowledge Piezoelectric skis. 116 Technicalities A behind-the-scenes look at a high-tech police lab. 119 Reviews Power to the People brings a balanced intelligence to the controversies over the future of energy and the environment. 125 Annual Index 2003 34 52 124 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Volume 289 Number 6 columns 50 Skeptic BY MICHAEL SHERMER How alternative medicine harms patients. 122 Puzzling Adventures BY DENNIS E. SHASHA Parallel repetition. 123 Anti Gravity BY STEVE MIRSKY Kid logic and the hairy Houdini. 124 Ask the Experts What is game theory? Why do humans get goose bumps? 128 Fuzzy Logic BY ROZ CHAST Cover photoillustration and page 7: Nancy Burson; this page, at left: Kathleen Dooher. Scientific American (ISSN 0036-8733), published monthly by Scientific American, Inc., 415 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017-1111. Copyright © 2003 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this issue may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording, nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise copied for public or private use without written permission of the publisher. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post International Publications Mail (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 242764. Canadian BN No. 127387652RT; QST No. Q1015332537. Subscription rates: one year $34.97, Canada $49 USD, International $55 USD. Postmaster: Send address changes to Scientific American, Box 3187, Harlan, Iowa 51537. Reprints available: write Reprint Department, Scientific American, Inc., 415 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017-1111; (212) 451-8877; fax: (212) 355-0408 or send e-mail to sacust@sciam.com Subscription inquiries: U.S. and Canada (800) 333-1199; other (515) 247-7631. Printed in U.S.A. Sallie W. Chisholm, M.I.T. COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- 8. In October, Californiavoters did something that will have long-term ramifications for their state. No, we’re not talking about the election of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the rejection of Proposition 54, which would have voided requirements for govern- ment-affiliated programs to record the race of partic- ipants. Medical groups and physicians had claimed that the measure would have blocked doctors from tracking and treating diseases that afflict various racial groups differently. C. Everett Koop, for- mer U.S. surgeon general, even described the vote as a “life-and- death decision” in a television ad. The article by Michael J. Bamshad and Steve E. Olson in this month’s issue [“Does Race Exist?” on page 78] calls into question Koop’s dire assertion. Commonly used racial and eth- nic categories (such as “African- American,” “white” and “His- panic”) are often meaningless when it comes to de- termining a person’s DNA makeup. Genetics can be used to sort most people roughly into categories ac- cording to the geographic region where they were born, but populations that are the result of recent mi- grations and that have had a great deal of intermix- ing—such as those in South India and the U.S.—can- not be neatly parsed. Self-described African-Ameri- cans, for example, can have anywhere between 20 and 100 percent genetic heritage from Africa, whereas 30 percent of Americans who consider themselves “white” have less than 90 percent European ancestry. Yet self-described race is being used as a surrogate for genetic differences in research. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a draft “Guidance for Industry” suggesting that pharmaceutical and bio- technology companies collect data on the race of vol- unteers in clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of new treatments. The document recommends that companies ask study participants to identify their race according to the categories used by the U.S. Census. The FDA’s proposed guidelines have elicited out- cries from many interested parties, including J. Craig Venter of the Center for the Advancement of Ge- nomics in Rockville, Md. Venter—whose previous company, Celera, issued the first rough sequence of the human genome—wants the FDA to scrap the pro- posed guidelines and to advise companies instead to collect genetic information from each individual in a clinical trial. Using self-identified race as a surrogate for testing a person directly for a relevant trait is akin to recording the average weight of a group rather than weighing each individual, Venter and his colleague Su- sanne B. Haga write in the July 25 issue of Science. The complicating factor, of course, is money. Companies assert that genetic testing costs too much right now to be feasible as part of every clinical trial. And it is clear that racial differences in health exist: a disproportionate number of African-American men develop prostate cancer, for example, whereas white women are more prone than black women to breast cancer. The question is whether those variations can be attributed largely to genetics or to continuing race- based disparities in income, education or other factors. Until the advent of a truly egalitarian society, race will always be a proxy for deeper differences among groups. But the importance of racial identity should not be overinterpreted in clinical trials—particularly when those racial descriptors turn out to be such poor reflections of a person’s genetic heritage. The bottom line is: when you read or hear about a new health find- ing based on race, question it. 14 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DECEMBER 2003 LWA-DAWN TARDIF Corbis SAPerspectives THEEDITORSeditors@sciam.com Racing to Conclusions IS RACE linked to health? COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- 9. HowtoContactUs EDITORIAL ForLetterstotheEditors: Letters to theEditors Scientific American 415 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10017-1111 or editors@sciam.com Pleaseincludeyourname andmailingaddress, andcitethearticle andtheissuein whichitappeared. Lettersmaybeedited forlengthandclarity. Weregretthatwecannot answerallcorrespondence. Forgeneralinquiries: Scientific American 415 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10017-1111 212-754-0550 fax: 212-755-1976 or editors@sciam.com SUBSCRIPTIONS For new subscriptions, renewals, gifts, payments, and changes of address: U.S. and Canada 800-333-1199 Outside North America 515-247-7631 or www.sciam.com or Scientific American Box 3187 Harlan, IA 51537 REPRINTS Toorderreprintsofarticles: Reprint Department Scientific American 415 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10017-1111 212-451-8877 fax: 212-355-0408 reprints@sciam.com PERMISSIONS Forpermissiontocopyorreuse materialfromSA: www.sciam.com/permissions or 212-451-8546 for procedures or Permissions Department Scientific American 415 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10017-1111 Pleaseallowthreetosixweeks forprocessing. ADVERTISING www.sciam.comhaselectroniccontact informationforsalesrepresentatives ofScientificAmericaninallregionsofthe U.S.andinothercountries. NewYork Scientific American 415 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10017-1111 212-451-8893 fax: 212-754-1138 LosAngeles 310-234-2699 fax: 310-234-2670 SanFrancisco 415-403-9030 fax: 415-403-9033 Midwest Derr Media Group 847-615-1921 fax: 847-735-1457 Southeast/Southwest MancheeMedia 972-662-2503 fax: 972-662-2577 Detroit Karen Teegarden & Associates 248-642-1773 fax: 248-642-6138 Canada Derr Media Group 847-615-1921 fax: 847-735-1457 U.K. The Powers Turner Group +44-207-592-8331 fax: +44-207-630-9922 FranceandSwitzerland PEM-PEMA +33-1-46-37-2117 fax: +33-1-47-38-6329 Germany Publicitas Germany GmbH +49-211-862-092-0 fax: +49-211-862-092-21 Sweden Publicitas Nordic AB +46-8-442-7050 fax: +46-8-442-7059 Belgium Publicitas Media S.A. +32-(0)2-639-8420 fax: +32-(0)2-639-8430 MiddleEast Peter Smith Media & Marketing +44-140-484-1321 fax: +44-140-484-1320 India Yogesh Rao Convergence Media +91-22-2414-4808 fax: +91-22-2414-5594 Japan Pacific Business, Inc. +813-3661-6138 fax: +813-3661-6139 Korea Biscom, Inc. +822-739-7840 fax: +822-732-3662 HongKong Hutton Media Limited +852-2528-9135 fax: +852-2528-9281 OntheWeb WWW.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM FEATURED THIS MONTH Visit www.sciam.com/ontheweb to find these recent additions to the site: Rejection a Real Pain, Brain Study Shows It seems the old adage about sticks and stones and hurtful words may need revision. Social rejection, researchers report, elicits a brain response similar to the one triggered by physical pain. Subjects snubbed in a virtual game of catch exhibited activity in a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex, which also plays a role in pain processing. Electronic Paper Speeds Up for Videos Someday soon videos may be showing on paper instead of screens. Scientists have created a kind of electronic paper that can switch rapidly from one color to another, giving it the ability to display moving images. A number of research groups hope to develop electronic ink, but so far the screens cannot switch from one image to the next quickly enough for video. In the new work, engineers cleared this hurdle by utilizing a process known as electrowetting. Ask the Experts Why does moving one’s hands in front of an antenna influence television and radio reception? David Hysell, an associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University, explains. Scientific American.com Marketplace ANNOUNCE YOUR CONFERENCES ON SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.COM Target and reach the researchers, educators and business managers of science/technology industries with Scientific American.com. With nearly seven million page views and more than 700,000 unique visitors a month, Scientific American.com remains the premier Internet sci/tech site for attracting your professional audience. List in Scientific American.com Marketplace TODAY! For as little as $150 a month... www.sciam.com/marketplace/ © SCIENCE 16 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DECEMBER 2003 COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- 10. 18 SCIENTIFIC AMERICANDECEMBER 2003 Letters E DI T O R S @ S C I A M . C O M EDITOR IN CHIEF: John Rennie EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Mariette DiChristina MANAGING EDITOR: Ricki L. Rusting NEWS EDITOR: Philip M. Yam SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR: Gary Stix SENIOR EDITOR: Michelle Press SENIOR WRITER: W. Wayt Gibbs EDITORS: Mark Alpert, Steven Ashley, Graham P. Collins, Carol Ezzell, Steve Mirsky, George Musser CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Mark Fischetti, Marguerite Holloway, Michael Shermer, Sarah Simpson, Paul Wallich EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, ONLINE: Kate Wong ASSOCIATE EDITOR, ONLINE: Sarah Graham ART DIRECTOR: Edward Bell SENIOR ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR: Jana Brenning ASSISTANT ART DIRECTORS: Johnny Johnson, Mark Clemens PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR: Bridget Gerety PRODUCTION EDITOR: Richard Hunt COPY DIRECTOR: Maria-Christina Keller COPY CHIEF: Molly K. Frances COPY AND RESEARCH: Daniel C. Schlenoff, Rina Bander, Emily Harrison, Michael Battaglia EDITORIAL ADMINISTRATOR: Jacob Lasky SENIOR SECRETARY: Maya Harty ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, PRODUCTION: William Sherman MANUFACTURING MANAGER: Janet Cermak ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MANAGER: Carl Cherebin PREPRESS AND QUALITY MANAGER: Silvia Di Placido PRINT PRODUCTION MANAGER: Georgina Franco PRODUCTION MANAGER: Christina Hippeli CUSTOM PUBLISHING MANAGER: Madelyn Keyes-Milch ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/VICE PRESIDENT, CIRCULATION: Lorraine Leib Terlecki CIRCULATION DIRECTOR: Katherine Corvino CIRCULATION PROMOTION MANAGER: Joanne Guralnick FULFILLMENT AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Rosa Davis VICE PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: Bruce Brandfon ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Gail Delott SALES DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: David Tirpack SALES REPRESENTATIVES: Stephen Dudley, Hunter Millington, Stan Schmidt, Debra Silver ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER, STRATEGIC PLANNING: Laura Salant PROMOTION MANAGER: Diane Schube RESEARCH MANAGER: Aida Dadurian PROMOTION DESIGN MANAGER: Nancy Mongelli GENERAL MANAGER: Michael Florek BUSINESS MANAGER: Marie Maher MANAGER, ADVERTISING ACCOUNTING AND COORDINATION: Constance Holmes DIRECTOR, SPECIAL PROJECTS: Barth David Schwartz MANAGING DIRECTOR, ONLINE: Mina C. Lux SALES REPRESENTATIVE, ONLINE: Gary Bronson WEB DESIGN MANAGER: Ryan Reid DIRECTOR, ANCILLARY PRODUCTS: Diane McGarvey PERMISSIONS MANAGER: Linda Hertz MANAGER OF CUSTOM PUBLISHING: Jeremy A. Abbate CHAIRMAN EMERITUS: John J. Hanley CHAIRMAN: Rolf Grisebach PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Gretchen G. Teichgraeber VICE PRESIDENT AND MANAGING DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL: Dean Sanderson VICE PRESIDENT: Frances Newburg Established 1845 ® UNIVERSAL QUESTIONS Jacob D. Bekenstein’s “Information in the Holographic Universe” contains an odd statement: “Our innate perception that the world is three-dimensional could be an extraordinary illusion.” But our visual perception of three-dimensional space is constructed by the brain from light falling on the two-dimensional sur- face of the retina. Contributing to the 3-D “illusion” are our senses of touch, kinesthesia (the system that relies on feed- back from muscles) and hearing. If Bek- enstein’s assertion is correct, it is hard to understand why evolutionary adaptation would have taken such a complex route to generate this illusion of three dimen- sions when a more accurate perception of reality might have served us better. Kellogg Wilson via e-mail In an optical hologram, information about the entire image is contained in each part of the hologram, so if it were broken up, the whole image could still be seen in each piece. Would the same con- cept hold for the universe hologram? Would a piece of matter in one part of the world contain information about matter on the other side of the world—or even about the distant stars—if only we knew how to view it? Dale Rabinovitz Twinsburg, Ohio How does the holographic view affect the big bang description of the origin of the universe? The big bang implies that the universe started from a point object. This would seem to be impossible if the infor- mation content of the universe is con- stant. If this logic is correct, I would be interested in the smallest size that the uni- verse could be and a description of this smallest universe. Larry Jordan via e-mail BEKENSTEIN REPLIES: Wilson may be right thatcerebralprocessingofocularandtactile signalsisresponsibleforoursensingathree- dimensional space and that it would have been evolutionarily “cheaper” for our brains to have a different structure if the world real- ly were two-dimensional. Clearly, three di- mensions are convenient for describing ex- perimental facts and for expressing the fa- miliar laws of physics that explain those facts.Nevertheless,theholographicprinciple could be true: the ultimate, fundamental physical laws could operate in a world with a two-dimensionalgeometry.Sensoryphysiol- ogy and psychology are even more removed from fundamental reality than are the effec- tivelawsofphysicsweusetoday.Wecannot draw conclusions about the ultimate nature of reality from the fact that we literally per- ceive three dimensions. Rabinovitziscorrectthataneverydayop- tical hologram contains an entire image (al- beit with impaired resolution) in every small section of itself. The holographic principle of particle physics and cosmology does not work that way. To describe the whole uni- verse,weneedthewholehologram.Theholo- WE’LL ADMIT IT. Theoretical physics is not for everyone. “I have never before read anything so full of ‘scientific’ balder- dash,gobbledygookandobscuretheories,”grousedWilShortof Boise, Idaho, about Jacob D. Bekenstein’s “Information in the Holographic Universe.” Fortunately, hundreds of letter writers offereddifferentintriguingimpressionsoftheAugustissuecov- er story. Still others praised the multidisciplinary approach of “Questioning the Delphic Oracle,” by John R. Hale, Jelle Zeilinga deBoer,JeffreyP.ChantonandHenryA.Spiller,whichprofessed that petrochemical vapors gave the ancient Greek prophesiers their visions. From physics to fumes, a sampling of our readers’ august perspicacity fills the following pages. COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- 11. graphic description isexact. The key “holo- graphic” property is that the description takes fewer dimensions than would seem necessary from the kinds of physical mea- surements we can make today. As Jordan’s question suggests, the origi- nal form of the holographic bound does en- counter problems in the early stages of the big bang. Similar problems arise whenever the gravitational field is strong and the sys- tem is evolving extremely rapidly. In 1999 these inconsistencies led Raphael Bousso, then at Stanford University, to formulate his versionoftheholographicbound,inwhichthe entropyistalliedbyimaginarybeamsoflight rays. The Bousso holographic bound is con- sistent with the big bang picture, even the very early stages. DANGEROUS PROPHECY “Questioning the Delphic Oracle,” by John R. Hale, Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, Jef- freyP.ChantonandHenryA.Spiller,says: “Extraordinarily for misogynist Greece, the Pythia was a woman.” I don’t see what’s so extraordinary. As the article describes it, the Pythia held a danger- ous job. The women were occasion- ally forced into service, and they breathed intoxicating gases that sometimes killed them. Is it real- ly so unusual that a misogynist culture would relegate this task to women of no social standing? Miguel Muñoz Los Angeles A fascinating article. But given all the ethane, methane or ethylene floating around, how is it that the an- cient Greeks didn’t blow themselves up when they brought in their oil lamps? Bill Sandidge Atlanta Although we share the authors’ enthusi- asm, we disagree with their contention that the inhalation of ethylene explains the experiences of the Pythias in the un- derground oracular chamber. The gas is explosive in air! Also, the authors ignore contemporaneous accounts indicating that the “possession” of the Pythias was produced by smoking or ingesting the leaves of the Laurus nobilis (laurel or bay leaf), which was sacred to Apollo. We acknowledge that ethylene in low subexplosive (and subintoxicating) concentrations was very likely present in the chamber but suggest that it may have been significant for its effect on plants rather than its effect on people. Ethylene affects the growth of plants and is pro- duced naturally by many plants to influ- ence plant maturation. We wonder if the plant became sacred to those who tend- ed Apollo’s Delphic temple because the trace quantities of ethylene present helped to keep fresh the laurel sprigs carried by the Pythias when they went to work. Tom Poulton Omaha, Neb. Mike Poulton Lincoln, Neb. I take exception to the last paragraph of this otherwise valuable article. I cannot see that the ancient Greeks could have ex- hibited a “broad-minded and interdisci- plinary attitude” as we understand such to be today. They were convinced of the truth of their religious beliefs and sought to explain the natural phenomena they perceived in terms of those beliefs. Ken Herrick Oakland, Calif. HALE REPLIES: In answer to Sandidge’s let- ter,webelievethattheconcentrationsofhy- drocarbon gas in the oracular shrine at Del- phi must have been high enough to trigger a trance state yet low enough to avoid com- bustion. Oracular sessions were held in the morning, and there are no ancient refer- ences to lamps or torches. One side of the Pythia’s adytum was open, so she could see and respond to questioners. If the Pythia fol- lowed procedures that were standard else- where, then the oracular session may have beenprecededbythreedaysoffasting,thus heightening her susceptibility to low levels of ethylene. Once modern scholars had rejected the ancient testimony concerning Delphi’s fis- sure and gaseous emission, alternative ex- planationsforthePythia’strancerushedinto fill the void. The Poultons refer to two of these, namely, the smoking or ingestion oflaurel.Throughfrequentrepetitionin popularliterature,theseexplanations arenowwidelyacceptedasfact.The description of the Pythia chewing laurel, or bay leaves, however, comes not from eyewitnesses but from hostile satirists and early Christians who were attacking the oracle. As for the “smoke” theory, it rests only on Plutarch’s comment that before going down to the shrine, the Pythia made a burnt offering of sim- ple bay leaves and barley flour rather than expensive laudanum or frankincense. If leaves triggered her trance, then the Pythia should have been able to prophesy any- where, not just in the sunken adytum of the temple. Contrary to the current popular belief ex- pressed by Herrick, the Greeks were not uni- formly dogmatic or superstitious. As early as the fifth century B.C., the spectrum of belief covered a range similar to that of our own time. At one extreme were scientific re- searchers such as Anaxagoras and Aristotle, www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 19 BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY Letters SCIENTISTS NOW STUDY the oracles that were once consulted by kings. COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- 12. who sought toobserve and explain nature independently of the gods. At the other werereligiousfundamentalists.Midwaybe- tweenweredevoutrationalistssuchasPlu- tarch. Though serving as a priest of Apollo, Plutarch tried to reconcile science and reli- gionbypositinganaturalworldwithitsown laws and properties that could be used by the gods for their purposes. For example, this line of thinking might suggest that ApollousedthenaturalexhalationatDelphi to stimulate the oracle. BRAINS ON THE MIND “Rethinking the ‘Lesser Brain,’” by James M. Bower and Lawrence M. Par- sons, is an excellent overview of the new and evolving science of the cere- bellum. A number of recent studies sug- gest that the cerebellum’s role is to ex- pedite the automating of motor and cognitive skills. If certain skills become automatic, the cerebral cortex can spend more time thinking, acquiring new skills, or refining and improving existing skills. Maybe dysfunction or absence of the cerebellum slows down the automating process to a point where it may take much longer to de- velop or where it may never be achieved. Either circumstance could take a toll on cerebral performance, af- fecting connections between the sens- es and physical functions as well as the ability to organize, create, and com- plete thoughts and tasks. This certain- ly seems to be the case for the cognitive and motor functioning of patients who have cerebellar dysfunctions. D. R. Rutherford Sheffield, England While reading the article, I was struck by the idea that the cerebellum is basi- cally analogous to an input-output buffer in electronics. Electronics data acquisition equipment most often has some kind of signal-handling buffer. It allows the acquisition equipment to gather simultaneous inputs and to “precondition” the information so the main system can handle it more easily. Many of the findings from recent stud- ies would imply this same kind of func- tionality for the cerebellum. Kevin Stokes Jasper, Ind. CALCULATING DISASTER In Perspectives [“Houston, You Have a Problem”], the editors note that the piece of foam insulation indicted in the shuttle disaster “slammed into the ... wing at more than 500 miles an hour.” When the foam piece separated from the rocket, it was traveling at the same speed as the shuttle. I presume that at one minute and 21 seconds into the flight, the rocket is in pretty thin air and the distance from the breakaway point to the shuttle wing is on the order of tens of feet. How could the relative speeds of the foam and the shuttle di- minish by 500 mph so quickly? Tom Sahagian via e-mail THE EDITORS REPLY: The air was thin but not nonexistent. The shuttle had reached an altitude of just over 20 kilometers, where the air density is roughly 8 percent of its sea-level value. Once the foam sepa- rated,theairflowblewitback.Asimpledrag calculationshowsthatthe foaminitiallyac- celerated at approximately 3,000 meters per second per second relative to the shut- tle.Atthatrate,itwouldhavereachedarel- ative velocity of more than 300 meters per second in the 0.1 second it took to fall 20 meters.Inpractice,thefoamdeceleratedas itwassweptupintheflow,soithitthewing at 240 meters per second (540 mph)— which matches what the launch cameras saw.Theanalysisappearsinsection3.4of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report and accompanying documents (such as www.caib.us/news/documents/ impact–velocity.pdf). ERRATUM In “Information in the Holo- graphic Universe,” by Jacob D. Bekenstein, the William Blake quotation should have read “see a world in a grain of sand,” not “see the world in a grain of sand.” www.sciam.com COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- 13. DECEMBER 1953 RADIO TELESCOPES—“Theyoung science of radio astronomy began with investiga- tors simply picking up ‘noise’ from the sky. But about a year and a half ago a sin- gle significant note was discerned through the din. Today listening posts all over the world are tuning in on this high-pitched monotone at 1420 megacycles, and from it they are obtaining a new picture of the universe. The signal carries information about the hydrogen floating in space. One of the first puzzles the new hydrogen tele- scopes [see illustration] are seeking to un- ravel is the manner in which our galaxy is rotating. Jan H. Oort, H. C. van de Hulst and C. A. Muller have already discerned a spiral arm struc- ture of hydrogen clouds in the Milky Way system.” MODERN MIND—“Is modern life driving many people in- sane? One way to get at the question is to examine the mental health of a secure, sta- ble society. The Hutterites, an isolated Anabaptist religious sect of the North American Middle West, provide an ide- al social laboratory of this kind, and they cooperated generously in the interest of science. We did not find a sin- gle Hutterite in a mental hos- pital. But this appearance of unusual mental health did not stand the test of an intensive screening of the inhabitants. In short, the Hutterite culture provided no immunity to mental disorders. The existence of these illnesses in so secure and stable a social or- der suggests that there may be genetic, or- ganic or constitutional predispositions to psychosis which will cause breakdowns among individuals in any society, no mat- ter how protective and well integrated. — Joseph W. Eaton and Robert J. Weil” DECEMBER 1903 PLANE FLIGHT—“On December 17, Messrs. Orville and Wilbur Wright made some successful experiments at Kitty Hawk, N.C., with an aeroplane pro- pelled by a 16-horsepower, four-cylin- der, gasoline motor, and weighing com- plete more than 700 pounds. The aero- plane was started from the top of a 100-foot sand dune. After it was pushed off, it at first glided downward near the surface of the incline. Then, as the pro- pellers gained speed, the aeroplane rose steadily in the air to a height of about 60 feet, after which it was driven a distance of some three miles against a twenty- mile-an-hour wind at a speed of about eight miles an hour. Mr. Wilbur Wright was able to land on a spot he selected, without hurt to himself or the machine. This is a decided step in advance in aeri- al navigation with aeroplanes.” [Editors’ note: The description of the takeoff and flight contains several inaccuracies and probably came from secondary sources. See “The Equivocal Success of the Wright Brothers,” on page 94.] DECEMBER 1853 STEAMSHIP COMMERCE—“On the Pacific side of South America, steamships are making good progress in the affections of the people. The Chilian Congress has lately adopted, with only one opposing vote, a project of the Government estab- lishing a line of steamers between their coast and Europe. The proposal is to make an appropriation in aid of a line of vessels, ‘with an auxiliary steam engine,’ which is to be established between Cal- dera and Liverpool, touching at Valparaiso, in the Straits of Magellan, and at Rio Ja- neiro; one vessel to sail every six weeks, and never to be over 70 days in passage. The company is made up entirely of people from the United States.” SCIENTIST’S BEST FRIEND— “Mr. E. Merriam, of Brook- lyn Heights, N.Y., has made meteorological records from threeinstruments,everyhour, day and night, for eight years, many of which have been published in the ‘Scientific American.’ When inquired, ‘But, sir, how do you manage to keep your record through the night hours?’ The reply was, ‘I retire regularly, my dog is stationed in the entry by the clock, and at its strik- ing immediately scratches at the door. I rise, make the record, and in a few min- utes am regularly asleep again until the dog gives notice of the expiration of an- other hour.’ We saw the intelligent ani- mal—and also the evidence of his labor performed on the door of the sleeping room of his master.” 22 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DECEMBER 2003 Cosmic Hydrogen ■ Wright Airplane ■ Canine Labor NEW RADIO TELESCOPE helps to chart the cosmos, 1953 50,100&150 YearsAgo FROM SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
- 14. In 1971 LinusPauling published a paper in which he analyzed the constituents of human breath. His study showed that an exhalation contained about 200 dif- ferent compounds, many more than had been previ- ously suspected. In the mid-1970s Michael Phillips, at the time a thirtysomething physician from Western Australia working on his fellowship at the University of California at San Francisco, read the paper with fas- cination. Phillips was looking for a field of research to which he could devote himself. “Pauling opened up a new area of science,” he says. “I thought: if all of these compounds are there, they must be signaling something. This grabbed my attention, and I’ve pursued it since.” About a quarter of a century later, Phillips received preliminary approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Ad- ministration for a device that samples the breath of heart transplant patients for organ rejection in the first year after the operation, a supplement to regular biop- sies. He hopes that last year’s assent will soon be fol- lowed by endorsement from the agency to charge for the procedure. Checking breath would be potentially faster, simpler, cheaper and less invasive than biopsies or other procedures used to detect disease. Phillips’s tiny company, Menssana Research, is considering de- velopment of breath analyses for ailments ranging from lung cancer to markers of biological aging. At the same time, he continues to battle deep-seated skepticism in the scientific community about the validity of Mens- sana’s approach to creating a diagnostic breath sniffer. The idea of making a diagnosis by examining breath is as old as medicine. Hippocrates observed that the aroma of a patient’s exhalation could provide clues to disease. Today testing is done routinely to discern a compound such as alcohol or the breakdown product of a substance fed to a patient, which can confirm the presence of, say, the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, im- plicated in ulcers and other diseases. In contrast, Phillips, like Pauling, attempts to mea- sure more than a single compound. Formed in the 1990s, Fort Lee, N.J.–based Menssana looks at an en- tire spectrum of organic chemicals, elevated or dimin- ished levels of which could serve as an indicator of dis- ease. Early work proceeded by first freezing these volatile organic compounds using liquid nitrogen and then identifying the individual components with a gas chromatograph. But the collection device could be used only once, because an ice plug formed in the tube into which the subject blew. When Phillips set up a laboratory at Bayley Seton Hospital on Staten Island in the late 1980s, he received a small grant that allowed him to adopt a different tech- nical approach. He used an activated-charcoal adsorbent trap to capture volatile organics and a thermal desorber to bake off and concentrate the breath constituents—all equipment that was developed for conducting environ- mental tests. The chemicals are separated by a gas chro- 26 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DECEMBER 2003 NAJLAH FEANNY Innovations Breath Takers A quixotic career-long quest to diagnose disease simply by exhaling By GARY STIX DIAGNOSTIC PUFF MACHINE: Menssana Research chief executive Michael Phillips poses with an apparatus that collects breath that is then analyzed for the presence of a condition such as lung cancer or heart transplant rejection. COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
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- 17. LESSON 9 In ourEnglish lessons, we have been studying the division of words into parts of speech. We have been studying them as we use them in expressing our thoughts but we may study them in other ways also. We may study them as words alone. Studied in this way we find that we have simple, compound and derivative words. For example, man, man-slaughter, manly. Man is a simple word. Man-slaughter is a compound word formed of twosimple words. Manly is a derivative word derived from man. When a compound word is first formed, it is usually written with a hyphen; but after the word has been used awhile the hyphen is often dropped and the two parts are written together as a simple word. A simple word is a single word which cannot be divided into other words without changing its meaning. A compound word is composed of two or more simple words into which it may be divided, each retaining its own meaning. A derivative word is one which is derived from a simple word by the addition of another syllable. In next week's lesson we will take up the study of these derivatives. Divide the compound words in this week's lesson into the simple words of which they are composed. Monday
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- 21. LESSON 10 Dear Comrade: Wehave been studying this course in Plain English for some weeks now and I trust that you have been enjoying as well as benefiting by the study of our wonderful and expressive language. Did you ever stop to think what a wonderful step it was in evolution when man first began to use the spoken word? And yet it was a still more wonderful step in advance when he began to use the written word for our highest evolution, and development would have been impossible without the help of written speech. An illiterate man may be a good workman and prosperous so far as the material things of life and his immediate contact with his fellow men are concerned, but we have only to think for a moment of what this world would be if we had no written language, to understand what a mighty power it has been in evolution. Suppose we had no way by which we could communicate with our friends at a distance. Suppose there were no written words by which we could set down the countless dealings between man and man. What a hopeless tangle this social life of ours would soon become! Suppose also that we had no knowledge of the past, no knowledge of the discoveries and inventions of past generations except that which could be handed down to us through oral speech. All our knowledge of history, of the deeds and development of the past, all the observations by which science has uncovered to us the mysteries of nature would be largely lost to us. It was the invention of writing alone which made possible man's growth from barbarism to civilization, and it is more true than we oftentimes realize, that it is "only a wall of books that separates the civilized man of to-day from the savage of yesterday." And yet I wonder if we have ever stopped
- 22. to think howthis art of writing developed. Knowledge of the alphabet and of the letters by which we form our words and hence are able to express our ideas, has become such a common-place thing to us that we have forgotten what a wonder it is and how it has slowly grown and developed through the centuries. Yet there are races to-day that have no written language such as we know and to whom our written language seems truly a miracle. The story is told of an Indian who was sent from one colony to another with four loaves of bread accompanied by a letter stating their number. The Indian ate one of the loaves and of course, was found out. The next time when he was sent upon a similar errand he repeated the theft but he took the precaution to hide the letter under a stone while he was eating the bread so that it might not see him! But it is only the things that we do not understand which we invest with mystery and as we study the story of the alphabet in this series of letters we find that it has been a natural development accomplished by the growing powers of man. In succeeding letters we will trace this most interesting story of the alphabet. Yours for Education, THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE. HELPING VERBS 168. We have found that whenever a verb is used by itself in making an assertion it denotes either present or past time. When we use a verb phrase, it expresses some other time than the past or present. These verb phrases are formed by using shall, will, have, had, and the various forms of the verb be with some form of the principal verb. These verbs which help to form verb phrases are called helping, or auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary means helping.
- 23. We have usedhave and had with the past participle to form the present perfect and past perfect time forms. We have used shall and will with different forms of the verb to denote future time, and we have used different forms of the verb be in making the various other time forms. So shall, will, have, had and the various forms of the verb be are helping verbs, which we use to help us in making verb phrases. 169. But these are not all of the helping verbs. There are other helping verbs which we use in forming verb phrases to express different ideas. These are such verbs as should and would, may and might, can and could, must and ought, do and did. Exercise 1 Fill the blank spaces in the following sentences with the appropriate forms of the helping verbs, shall, will, have, had and be. 1. When......the workers organize? 2. Education......help us win. 3. The world......had enough of war. 4. We......deceived by the masters. 5. The workers......organized into craft unions. 6. They......never ceased the struggle. 7. The state......founded on exploitation. 8. Mutual aid......been an important factor in evolution. 9. The truth......taught to the people. 10. The victory......gained by the proletariat. 11. The nations of Europe......preparing for war for years. 12. The International......recognized war for defense. 13. We......not made the class distinctions, but we......recognize them as long as they exist. 14. The evolution of animals and the evolution of plants......proceeded according to the same general laws. 15. We......never win while the majority remains ignorant. 16. The strikers......betrayed by their leaders.
- 24. SHOULD AND WOULD 170.Should and would are the past-time forms of shall and will. We use them to express action or existence dependent upon some condition, thus: I should go if I were well enough. He should join us if you asked him. In these sentences should and would express action which is possible now or will be in the future, provided some other action takes place. The same distinction which we found made in the use shall and will has been made with should and would; that is, that should used with the first person, expresses action dependent upon condition; but would, used with the first person, implies exercise of the will. This rule is not closely followed, though it expresses a nice distinction in the use of should and would. In ordinary usage we use either should or would with the first person without any distinction of meaning, as for example: I should struggle on even if it meant death. I would stand for my principles though I stood entirely alone. We do not use should however, with the second and third persons to express an action or existence dependent upon some condition. Should used with the second and third person implies obligation. Would is used with the second or third person to express an action dependent upon some condition, as for example: He would not go, even if you insisted. They would come if you invited them. You would believe him if you could hear him. You would be surprised if I should tell you the reason.
- 25. 171. Should andwould in all of the sentences which we have quoted are used to express action or existence dependent upon some condition which is expressed in that part of the sentence introduced by such conjunctions as if and though. The parts of the sentence introduced by these conjunctions express the condition upon which the other action is dependent. When we use should in sentences without this condition, it means practically the same as ought, and implies an obligation. We use should with the first and second and third persons when we use it with this meaning, as for example: I should have gone yesterday. You should be with us in this fight. They should never fear defeat. 172. Ought could be used in all these sentences and express practically the same meaning. Should used in this way implies obligation. Exercise 2 Study carefully the following sentences. Write in the blank space preceding each sentence the number of the paragraph in the lesson which governs the use of the helping verb in that sentence. 1. ...... The workers should organize if they desire to control production. 2. ...... The proletariat would destroy this system if they understood their power. 3. ...... Every worker would join his fellows if he could but realize the class struggle. 4. ...... We would all enjoy plenty if we produced for use instead of for profit. 5. ...... The ruling class would not give up their privileges even though they knew that their cupidity endangers society. 6. ...... The injury of one should be the injury of all.
- 26. 7. ...... Theworkers' International should stand for the international solidarity of the workers. 8. ...... You should never fear the ridicule of little minds. 9. ...... You would never fear ridicule if you were conscious of your own power. 10. ...... No man should fear to think for himself. 11. ...... No man would fear to think for himself if the world were truly free. 12. ...... Compromise now would mean defeat. MAY AND MIGHT 173. May used as a helping verb means present permission in regard to an action or possession, as: You may come with us. He may have the money. 174. It may also mean a possible action or possession. You may come with us, for example, might mean that some time in the future it is possible that you will come with us. He may have the money, might mean either He is given permission to have the money, or It is possible that he has it. May, used with many verb forms, means it is possible. For example: He may be hungry, He may have starved. He may have been starving; that is, it is possible that he is hungry; that he has starved; that he was starving. 175. Might is the past form of may and expresses past permission to do or to be and also possibility in the past. For example: The officer said he might go. That is, he gave him permission to go. You might have helped your comrades; that is, you had the power to have helped.
- 27. Might is alsoused to express permission or the power to do in the present and future, on condition. For example: He might find work if he were trained. The workers might destroy this insane system if they would. Exercise 3 Study carefully the following sentences. Write in the blank space preceding each sentence the number of the paragraph in the lesson which governs the use of the helping verbs may or might in that sentence. 1. ...... The solidarity of the workers might have averted this war. 2. ......"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these—'it might have been.'" 3. ...... You might join us. 4. ...... The people struggle that they may live. 5. ...... Try; you might succeed. 6. ...... The day may come when this day's deeds shall be remembered. 7. ...... Victory might be ours if we dared to face the issue. 8. ......"Men may come and men may go; But I go on forever." 9. ...... It seemed possible that we might win. 10. ...... May we ever be loyal and true! 11. ...... It appeared for a time that we might be involved in war. 12. ...... Let come what may, we will not yield. CAN AND COULD 176. Can is the present-time form and could the past-time form, and both imply ability or power to do or to be.
- 28. You can gomeans You are able to go,—You have the power to go. You may go means You have permission to go. Can is often used when we should use may, when we mean to give permission. Habit plays a great part in our life and knowledge of the right way does not always suffice. It is only continued effort that will establish correct habits of speech. Good English would be easy of accomplishment if "to do were as easy as to know what it were good to do." We are too often like the mother in the story. "Can I have a piece of pie?" asked the child. "May I?" the mother corrected. Then the child asked, "May I have a piece of pie?" and the mother answered, "Yes, you can." Knowledge said, may; habit said can, and the ready tongue obeyed the force of habit. Say the correct word over and over aloud until it sounds right to your ear and flows readily to your tongue. 177. Could is sometimes used in the present sense to denote power to do, conditioned upon willingness, as: He could if he would. Exercise 4 Study carefully the following sentences. Write in the blank space preceding each sentence the number of the paragraph in the lesson which governs the use of the helping verbs can or could in that sentence. 1. ...... I can say love when others say hate; I can say every man when others say one man; What can I do? I can give myself to life, When other men refuse themselves to life. 2. ...... No one can be free till all are free.
- 29. 3. ...... Theycould win their freedom if they would prepare themselves to be free. 4. ...... What can I do, being alone? 5. ...... If all men could catch the vision of freedom, wars would cease. 6. ...... Could you find a better way to spend your time than in study? 7. ...... Men would rise in revolt if they could know the facts. MUST AND OUGHT 178. Must and ought imply obligation. Must conveys the idea of being obliged to do an action from necessity or compulsion, as, You must have known it. He must go. Ought was originally the past time form of owe, hence means to be indebted to, to owe. It conveys the idea of a moral obligation, as, You ought to help the cause. You ought to understand. 179. Ought is always used with the infinitive, and the same form is used to express both the present and the past time. The difference in time is expressed by a change in the infinitive instead of a change in the form of the helping verb. With may and might and can and could, present and past time are expressed by a change in the form of the helping verb. With the helping verb ought, the difference in time is expressed in the infinitive. For example: He ought to pay us our wages. This means, He owes it to us to pay us our wages now. He ought to have paid us our wages.
- 30. This means, Heowed it to us to pay us our wages some time in the past. 180. The present infinitive is used with the helping verb ought to express present time and the perfect infinitive is used with ought to express past time. Exercise 5 Study carefully the following sentences. Write in the blank space preceding each sentence the number of the paragraph in the lesson which governs the use of the helping verb must or ought in that sentence. 1. ...... Service must be the key note of the future. 2. ...... Competition must give place to co-operation. 3. ...... Ought we to fear, who know the truth? 4. ...... Government ought to be the administration of things. 5. ...... No man ought to have the power of life and death over any other human being. 6. ...... It may cost much but humanity must be set free at any cost. 7. ...... What ought to be the attitude of the workers toward war? 8. ...... "For man must work and woman must weep, For there is little to do and many to keep." 9. ...... The day must come when we can live the dream. DO AND DID 181. Do and did are used as helping verbs to give emphasis—to form emphatic verb phrases. Do is the present time form and did the past time form, as for example: I do wish you would come. I did hope he would win.
- 31. 182. When weuse the negative not we use the helping verbs do and did to form our verb phrases. For example, we do not say: I obey not. I walked not. He comes not. They arrived not. But in expressing the present and past time forms with the negative not, we say instead: I do not obey. I did not walk. He does not come. They did not arrive. 183. We also use do and did with the present and past time forms of the verb in writing interrogative sentences. For example, we do not say: Comes he with them? Studied you yesterday? Found they the book? Think you it is true? But we say instead: Does he come with them? Did you study yesterday? Did they find the book? Do you think it is true? Exercise 6 Write in the blank space before each sentence the number of the paragraph which governs the use of the helping verb do or did in
- 32. that sentence. 1. ......Slaves do not think; they obey. 2. ...... Men do not obey; they think. 3. ...... Do you know that two per cent of the people own sixty per cent of the wealth? 4. ...... The children of the masses do not have the opportunity to attend school. 5. ...... Did not every nation claim a war for defense? 6. ......"We did not dare to breathe a prayer, Or give our anguish scope." 7. ...... We do desire the freedom of the people. 8. ...... We did hope that war might be averted. Let us sum up the auxiliary or helping verbs. 184. Helping verbs are used to express: The different time forms—shall, will, have, had, be. Power to do or to be—can, could, might. Permission—may and might. Possibility—may and might. Obligation—must, ought and should. Necessity—must. Condition—would. Mark the helping verbs in the following exercise: Exercise 7 The earth shall rise on new foundations. We have been naught, we shall be all. No more tradition's chains shall bind us. Oh! Liberty! Can man resign thee? Can dungeon's bolts and bars confine thee? Capital could never have existed if labor had not first existed.
- 33. What can Ido? I can talk out when others are silent. I can say man when others say money. Do you hear the children weeping, O my brothers? Political freedom can exist only where there is industrial freedom. Political democracy can exist only where there is industrial democracy. Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow. If there is anything that cannot bear free thought, let it crack. No doctrine, however established, should be protected from discussion. Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives the preaching of a new gospel. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer. No picture of life can have any variety which does not admit the odious facts. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. Exercise 8 Note the use of the helping verbs in the following quotation. Could you use might or must or ought anywhere and strengthen the emphasis? "I have looked at this claim by the light of history and my own confidence, and it seems to me, so looked at, to be a most just claim, and that resistance to it means nothing short of a denial of the whole of civilization. This then is the claim: It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which shall be worth doing and be of itself pleasant to do; and which should be done under such conditions as would make it neither over- wearisome nor over-anxious.
- 34. —William Morris. Turn thatclaim about as I may, think of it as long as I can, I cannot find that it is an exorbitant claim; yet if society would or could admit it, the face of the earth would be changed; discontent and strife and dishonesty would be ended. To feel that we were doing work useful to others and pleasant to ourselves, and that such work and its due reward could not fail us! What serious harm could happen to us then? And the price to be paid for so making the world happy, must be revolution."
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- 36. LESSON 10 Simple wordsare sometimes spoken of as root words. Root means that from which something grows. We know our language is a living, growing thing and these root words are the roots where the growth begins. One way in which this growth is accomplished and new words added to our language is by placing syllables before or after the root word—the simple word—as, for example: unmanly. In this we have a syllable placed before and a syllable placed after the root word man. The syllable placed before the root word is called the prefix from the Latin pre meaning before and the Latin word to place. Therefore, prefix means literally to place before. A prefix consists of one or more syllables placed before a word to qualify its meaning. The syllable placed after the root word, or simple word, is called the suffix, from the Latin sub meaning after and the Latin word to place. Subfix the word should be literally, but for the sake of the sound— the euphony, the good sound—we say suffix. A suffix consists of one or more syllables placed after a word to qualify its meaning. The words made by adding prefixes and suffixes are called derivative words. You remember we used a suffix in forming participles. The present participle is formed by adding the suffix ing to the simple form of the verb. The past participle is formed by adding the suffix ed to the simple form of the verb.
- 37. The words inthe spelling lesson for this week are derivative words formed by adding a prefix or suffix, or both, to the simple word. Draw a line through the prefix and the suffix and leave the simple or root word. Monday Wonderful Prosperous Disloyalty Uncovered Government Tuesday Memorize Unreality Co-operation Dependent Truly Wednesday Beautify Countless Uncomfortable Dishonesty Producer Thursday Existence Untruthfulness Discontentment Victory Removable
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- 40. LESSON 11 Dear Comrade: Aswe begin the study of the story of the alphabet and the evolution of written speech, we discover that primitive man imagined the art of writing to have had divine origin, to have been handed down from the powers above. It is natural for us to personify and envelop in mystery the things that we do not understand. So these primitive people have attributed the discovery of the art of writing to the gods and have looked upon the parchment containing the written word which they cannot understand, as possessing magical power; but as we come to learn the origin and causes of things, they are divested of their mystery and become no longer gods and enslavers of men. We understand the laws that govern their action and they become our servants. Take lightning for example. Primitive people personified the lightning or called it the thunder bolts of Jove or attributed it to an act of divine providence. We have learned the laws that govern the action of electricity and so this mighty giant is no longer a god to whom we bow in submission, and who slays us at his whim. He has become our most faithful servant who travels along the wires at our behest and obeys our every bidding. So in the early stages, the art of writing belonged only to the favored few and was made the means of enslavement of the common people instead of the means of liberation. Knowledge has always been power and the ruling classes of the world, desiring power over the people, have striven to keep knowledge within their own circle; so the art of writing was known only to the few. The few books in circulation were laboriously written by hand and circulated, largely among the clergy, who used it as
- 41. priests have everused their power—from medicine man to Pope,— for the enslavement of the people and the protection of the privileges of a few. This is aptly illustrated in the law which was known as "the benefit of clergy" which was not entirely repealed until the year 1827. Under this statute, exemption from trial for criminal offenses was given to the clergy and also to any man who could read. If a person were sentenced to death for some criminal offense, the bishop of that community might claim him as a clerk and if, when given a Latin book, he could read a verse or two, the court would declare "he reads like a clerk" and the offender was only burned in the hand and then set free. The invention of the printing press in the fifteenth century which made possible the diffusion of knowledge among the people, was the beginning of the emancipation of the workers of the world. But while we realize, perhaps, what this art of writing means to us and by the knowledge of its growth and development no longer ascribe it to divine origin or consider it a blessing designed by a supreme being for a favored few, still most of us know very little of the interesting evolution which made possible the alphabet which is the basis of our written and spoken language of to-day. When we realize how through all these long centuries man has been struggling, striving, evolving, developing, reaching out toward fuller, freer and richer life, it gives us courage in our struggle and makes us see ourselves, not as individuals alone, but as links in a mighty chain clasping hands with that primitive man of the past, from whom we have inherited the power we now possess, and reaching forth also to clasp the hands of those who shall come and handing on to them the things for which we have struggled and added to the inheritance of the past. Next week we will have the story of man's first beginning in the art of writing. Yours for Education,
- 42. THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE. THEVERB "BE" 185. The verb is perhaps the most difficult part of speech to master because it has more form changes than any other part of speech. In this lesson we are going to emphasize the most important things to remember in the study of the verb and also call attention to the most common mistakes. 186. First, master that little verb be in all its forms. The only way to do this is to commit to memory these forms. Say them over and over until any other form does not sound right. Present Past Future Singular Singular Singular 1. I am. I was. I shall be. 2. You are. You were. You will be. 3. He is. He was. He will be. Plural Plural Plural 1. We are. We were. We shall be. 2. You are. You were. You will be. 3. They are. They were. They will be. Pres. Perf. Past Perf. Fut. Perf. Have been. Had been. Shall have been. 187. Do not use aint for is not or am not. Do not say, He aint here, or I aint going. Say, He isn't here; I am not going.
- 43. A FREQUENT MISTAKE 188.Perhaps one of the most frequent mistakes is the confusion in the use of the past time form and the past participle. Remember that the past time form is never used except in expressing past time; never use it in forming a verb phrase. Take the verb do, for example —say, He did the work, never, He done the work; but we should say, He has done the work, never, He has did the work. Say and seen are confused in the same manner. Watch this carefully. Exercise 1 Underline the correct word in the following: 1. Who did—done it? 2. He sung—sang well. 3. He sunk—sank before we could reach him. 4. She written—wrote him a letter. 5. He taken—took the book. 6. They swum—swam the river. 7. I saw—seen him do it. 8. They drank—drunk too much. 9. He soon began—begun to fail. 10. The lad ran—run home. 11. They come—came yesterday. WITH HELPING VERBS 189. Never use the past time form with the helping verbs has, had, was and were. Always use the past participle. Watch this carefully. For example, never say, He has went. Went is the past time form. Say, He has gone. Exercise 2
- 44. Underscore the correctword in the following sentences: 1. He had tore—torn the book. 2. Have you ever sang—sung this tune? 3. They have showed—shown us how to win. 4. She has went—gone away. 5. The trees were shook—shaken by the wind. 6. He was chose—chosen for leader. 7. He has rose—risen from the ranks. 8. It was wrote—written by him. 9. He has took—taken the prize. 10. He was gave—given the money. 11. I have forgot—forgotten the rule. 12. The river was froze—frozen over. 13. The machine was broke—broken. 14. It was wore—worn out. 15. The meal was ate—eaten in silence. PAST TIME FORMS 190. Watch your speech to see if you use an incorrect verb form for the past time form. Study the table of irregular verbs and refer to it frequently. We often make the mistake of forming the past time form by adding ed when properly it is formed irregularly. For example: we often say drawed for drew, throwed for threw, etc. Exercise 3 Draw a line under the correct form in the following: 1. He grew—growed rapidly. 2. He knew—knowed better. 3. He catched—caught the ball. 4. He drew—drawed the water. 5. They threw—throwed him over.
- 45. 6. I drinked—drankthe water. 7. I climbed—clumb the tree. 8. I seed—saw him do it. 9. She teached—taught school. VERBS OF SIMILAR FORM 191. Do not use one verb for another of similar form but different meaning. The following are the most common of these: Lay (incomplete verb, requires an object) meaning to place or to put; as, to lay the book down. Principal parts: Present, lay; Past, laid; Past participle, laid. Lie (complete verb, takes no object) meaning to recline, to rest; as, to lie in bed. Principal parts: Present, lie; Past, lay; Past participle, lain. Set (incomplete verb, requires an object) meaning to place or to put; as, to set the table. Principal parts: Present, set; Past, set; Past participle, set. Sit (complete verb, takes no object) meaning to rest, as, to sit in a chair. Principal parts: Present, sit; Past, sat; Past participle, sat. Raise (incomplete verb, requires an object) meaning to cause to rise, to lift up. Principal parts: Present, raise; Past, raised; Past participle, raised. Rise (complete verb, takes no object) meaning to get up, to ascend. Principal parts: Present, rise; Past, rose; Past participle, risen. 192. NOTE—These three verbs need an object to complete their meaning:
- 46. Present Past PastParticiple set set set lay laid laid raise raised raised 193. NOTE—These three verbs need no object: Present Past Past Participle sit sat sat lie lay lain rise rose risen Exercise 4 Fill in the following blanks with the correct form of the verbs sit, set, lay, lie, raise and rise: 1. I......it on the table and there it....... 2. They......the battle ship, Maine. 3. Where did you......it? 4. A mile of pipe has been....... 5. The miners......a large strike fund. 6. She......down to sleep. 7. The body......in state three days. 8. The farmers of the U. S.......an enormous wheat crop. 9. The city......on the right bank. 10. We have......the corner stone. 11. When wages are......, prices are......too. 12. He......in bed all morning. 13. ......down Fido.
- 47. 14. The sun......atsix this morning. 15. She has been......there all day. 16. The ship......to during the storm. 17. They have been......new tracks. 18. The hen is......on the eggs. 19. Somebody said, "Early to bed and early to......, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." 20. He......motionless for an hour. 21. He......out the trees in rows. 22. He will......in his position. 23. The court will......in May. 24. Where did he......? 25. She......the table while he......there. 26. He......the clock for six o'clock. 27. The water has......two feet since the rain. 28. He......the book down and......on it. 29. The hen has been......a week. 30. ......it on the table. 31. He......in the shade and watched her......the plants. COMMON ERRORS 194. Remember that in the present time form the third person singular takes the s-form, but the s-form is never used except with the third person singular. We often make the mistake of using the s- form with a plural subject. Notice carefully the following sentences, and correct the errors. All of the sentences are wrong. 1. The days is getting shorter. 2. The men has struck. 3. The trains was late. 4. These papers is written for you. 5. You was disappointed, wasn't you? 6. There is several coming. 7. The nights was dark and cloudy.
- 48. 8. The cloudshas gathered. 9. They was anxious to come. 195. When two subjects are connected by and, the s-form of the verb must not be used, unless both subjects refer to one person; as: The president and the secretary (two persons) were late. The president and secretary (one person) was elected. 196. But when the two subjects are connected by or or nor then use the s-form of the verb; as: Neither Germany nor Russia admits a war of offense. Either the House or the Senate rejects the bill. 197. Never use the infinitive sign to by itself; as: I have not written and do not expect to. He has not gone nor does he intend to. 198. Never use don't for doesn't. The use of don't for doesn't is a very common mistake. Don't is a contraction of do not and doesn't of does not. When you are in doubt as to which to use, think or speak the two words in full and see if the verb agrees with the subject. Do not is used with a plural subject, and does not with a singular subject. For example: He don't believe me. This sentence in full would be, He do not believe me, which is incorrect. He does not (doesn't) believe me is correct. Or, They doesn't believe me. This sentence in full would read, They does not believe me, which is incorrect. They do not (don't) believe me is correct. 199. Do not use has got, or have got for must. For example, do not say, We have got to go. Say, We must go. Not, He has got to do what I say; but, He must do as I say.
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