Omni September 1990

Contents / Articles

First Word (pg 6)
Spiders, ants, and other insects may make your skin crawl, but
the worlds ecosystems need the resilient little buggers, says
Harvard's insect lover.
by E. O. Wilson

Omnibus (pg 10)
The Who's Who of contributing authors

Communications (pg 12)
Readers' writes.

Education (pg 14)
In the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, a New Jersey state park
will educate visitors through science-and-technology entertainment.
by John Cummings

Stars (pg 16)
The ins and outs of black holes: As stars collapse, physicist Alan Guth
is expanding and fine-tuning his theories on the universe.
by T.A. Heppenheimer

Artificial Intelligence (pg 18)
Students should learn computer ethics in school, but in the meantime,
software vendors offer increased protection to combat the hacker's
natural urge to solve puzzles.
by Jeff Goldberg

Mind (pg 20)
Adrift at sea on a raft, without water or food, could you survive
the elements? Or would you die before being rescued? Scientists
suggest that the answers to these questions may lie in your personality.
by Janel Bladow

Explorations (pg 22)
Native Americans in New York State are gaining ground in their battle to
recapture ancient homelands. Whether that is a sweet victory depends
on whether you live on or near tribal lands - and we all do.
by Dean Kuipers

Continuum (pg 25)
Is laughter really the best remedy?
Ants and termites: The next health fad?
The perfect honeymoon: A weekend in orbit - for a price that's
out of this world. An amateur astronomer gets the jump
on the professionals.

Lost Horizons? (pg 34)
The Tatshenshini River, Lake Baikal, Yasuni National Park, the Sudd,
and six other sanctuaries comprise some of the most beautiful wilderness
on Earth. But the future of these fragile environments depends on the
whims of local governments and the economy.
by Beth Howard and Bob Berger

The Dean of Psi (pg 42)
A mind is a terrible thing to waste: A prominent Princeton scientist
is investigating telekinesis clairvoyance, and telepathy. The results:
Psychic phenomena in small but measurable quantities exist.
by Steve Fishman

Pictorial: The Gardener of Eden (pg 50)
Basilius Besler, how did your seventeenth-century garden grow?
With flamboyant peonies, saucy cranberry, and edible cardoon - and
a dose of monkshood to die for. Alas, poor buttercup, all that remains
of the hilltop paradise is the healing horticulturist's catalog
of botanical delights.
by Shari Rudavsky

Fiction: In the Country of Tattooed Men (pg 58)
After each drunken binge, a Vietnam veteran wakes up sporting
another tattoo that he can't remember getting. The markings
resembling those he saw in the Southeast Asian jungle, where
you could never spot the enemy camouflaged among the foliage.
by Garry Kilworth

Interview (pg 66)
Animal organs will be preferable to artificial ones, says
Thomas Starzl, the world's preeminent transplant surgeon.
by Mark Dowie

Antimatter (pg 73)
Help is just a phone call away for UFO abductees.
Were yeti search parties harboring spies?
The sheriff and his deputies sight UFOs.

Games (pg 98)
Carnival operators know how to part fools and their money.
Know their secrets and you might beat them at their own games.
by Scot Morris

Video Scans (pg 100)
CDs: The next wave in video games
by Bob Lindstrom

Star Tech (pg 102)
Techno-tools of tomorrow.

Last Word (pg 104)
Traveler's travalis: Have you begun to look
like your passport photo?
by David Brenner