Present at the Future

by Ira Flatow

  This book owes its publication to my agent, Jonathan Lazear, who sat through many years of conversations with different publishers, finally successfully hooking up with Mathew Benjamin at HarperCollins.

  SEARCHABLE TERMS

  acidic ocean

  addiction

  adolescence

  advanced light water nuclear reactors

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  Aesop’s Fables

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  blogs

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  brain

  addiction and

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  information processing by

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  memory and. See memory neuron regeneration and

  reward system and

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  successive contrast and

  brain chemistry

  brain stem

  branes

  Branson, Richard

  Brazil

  Brief History of Time, A (Hawking)

  Brinker, Jeff

  British Columbia

  broadband. See bandwidth Brookhaven National Laboratory

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  Brown, Lester

  Brunson, Doyle

  bubbles, carbonation and

  buckyballs. See fullerenes Buddhists

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  Burgess, Anthony

  Bush, George W.

  embryonic stem cell research and

  energy policy and

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  space program and

  B vitamins

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  calluses

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  sequestration and

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  Cheney, Dick

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  China

  nuclear power and

  Christians

  CIA. See Central Intelligence Agency Clarke, Arthur C.

  “clean diesel” fuel

  climate change. See global warming clocks

  cloning

  recombinant technology

  CNN.com

  coal

  Coandă, Henri-Marie

  Coandă effect

  cocaine addiction. See addiction Cochran, Tom

  cognitive reserve

  Collins, Francis

  color wheels

  Columbia space shuttle

  Columbia University

  compulsive disorders

  computed tomography

  computerized axial tomography

  computers

  open-source movement and

  computers (continued)

  quantum

  See also Internet; personal computers

  conditioning

  Congo Basin

  consciousness

  Convergent Thinking, LLC

  coral reefs

  cord cells

  Corey, Dave

  corn

  See also ethanol cosmetics

  cosmology

  big bang and

 
dark energy and

  dark matter and

  dimensions of universe and

  quantum mechanics and

  relativity theory and

  string theory and

  theory of everything

  timeline of universe and

  cotton

  Cousteau, Jacques

  cows

  creationism

  creativity

  Crichton, Michael

  Crick, Francis

  Crohn’s disease

  Crowley, Kevin

  CT scans

  culture, chimpanzee capacity for

  cyber attacks

  dams

  dark energy

  dark matter

  Darwin, Charles

  Davis-Bessie nuclear plant

  Dawkins, Richard

  daydreaming

  deformed special relativity

  dementia

  . See also Alzheimer’s disease dendritic trees

  Denmark

  depression

  diabetes

  Faustman, Denise and

  diesel fuel

  . See also biodiesel fuel dikes. See levees “dirty” bombs

  disease

  cloning and

  immune system and

  stem cells and

  See also health and well-being

  DNA

  discoverer of

  human genome and

  nanotechnology and

  ocean life and

  primate research and

  stem cells and

  Venter, J. Craig and

  DNA cloning

  Dobzhansky, Theodosius

  Dolly (cloned sheep)

  dopamine

  Dover School Board case (Pa.)

  drag (wind resistance)

  dreaming

  drift nets

  drinking water

  drugs addiction and

  brain chemistry and

  rehabilitation programs and

  dry cask storage facilities

  dynamical triangulation

  dyslexia

  Earle, Sylvia

  Earth Policy Institute

  eating addictions

  eBay

  Eberhardt, Scott

  Edelman, Benjamin

  Edison, Thomas

  Edwards v. Aguilar (1987)

  EEGs. See electroencephalograms efficient causes

  Einstein, Albert

  quantum mechanics and

  relativity theory and

  religion and

  “spooky action at a distance” and

  theory of everything and

  electricity

  carbon nanotubes and

  cars powered by

  coal and

  nanowires and

  nuclear power and

  solar power and

  wind power and

  electroencephalograms

  electroencephalographs

  electromagnetism

  electrometallurgical processing

  electronics, nanotechnology and

  electrons

  embryonic stem cell lines

  embryonic stem cells

  embryos

  emotions

  encephalitis

  energy

  carbon nanotubes and

  environmentalism and

  fossil fuels and

  industry deregulation and

  nuclear power and

  politics and

  See also alternative energies; dark energy; electricity

  Energy Department, U.S.

  Enron

  entropy

  Environmental Defense

  environmentalism

  Environmental Protection Agency

  epilepsy

  episodic memory

  “equal transit times” principle

  ergot fungus

  ethanol

  European Organization for Nuclear

  Research

  evangelical Christians

  event memory

  everything, theory of

  evolution

  intelligent design vs.

  sleep and

  exercise

  experiments

  eyewitness accounts

  FAA. See Federal Aviation

  Administration fabrics, nanotechnology and

  Falcon 1 (spacecraft)

  Falcon 9 (spacecraft)

  Fantastic Voyage (film)

  Faraday, Michael

  farmers switchgrass crop and

  wind energy and

  Faustman, Denise

  Federal Aviation Administration

  Feynman, Richard

  fiber optics

  final causes

  First Amendment

  fish and fishing

  Fish and Wildlife Service

  Fleming, Alexander

  flex-fuel cars

  floodgates

  flooding

  Florida

  fMRI

  food biofuels and

  fish as

  good nutrition and

  overeating and

  Food and Drug Administration

  foot-and-mouth disease

  Ford, Gerald

  forgetfulness

  Forrest, Barbara

  fossil fuels. See coal; oil Foundation for Thought and Ethics

  Fountains of Paradise, The (Clarke)

  Fox, Michael J.

  France

  Froetschner, Kermit

  frontal cortex

  frontal lobes

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  aircraft

  Fuller, Buckminster

  fullerenes

  functional magnetic resonance imaging

  fundamentalism, religious

  FutureGen

  Gabon

  galaxies

  Galileo

  gambling, compulsive

  gasoline

  . See also oil Gates, Bill

  Gelsinger, Jesse

  gender, brain function and

  gene pool database, oceans and

  general anesthesia

  gene therapy

  genetic engineering

  cloning and

  genetics addiction and

  Alzheimer’s disease and

  brain and

  See also cloning; DNA Genetic Savings & Clone

  genetic testing

  Georgia

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  geosynchronous orbit

  Germany

  Gibbs, Josiah Willard

  Gimzewski, James

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  global warming

  coal power and

  flooding and

  moral imperative concerning

  nuclear power and

  oceans and

  sea level and

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  science’s relationship with

  God and the Astronomers (Jastrow)

  Goldblum, Jeff

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  Google

  Gorby, Yuri

  Gore, Al

  Gould, Stephen Jay

  GPL. See GNU Public License graphite-moderated nuclear reactors

  Grateful Dead (music group)

  gravity

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  relativity theory and

  space travel and

  string theory and

  theory of everything and

  Gray, Asa

  Great Britain

  Greene, Brian

  Greenfield, Shelly

  greenhouse gases

  . See also specific gases

  Greenland

  Gregoire, Christine

  Grey, Jerry

  Griffin, Michael

  Grosvenor, Gilbert

  Guinness beer

 
; Haack, Susan

  hallucinations

  musical

  Halterman, Bob

  Haught, John

  Hawking, Stephen

  health and well-being

  nutrition and

  nanotechnology and

  health insurance

  heart disease

  helium

  hemicellulose

  Hering, Ewald

  Hewlett-Packard

  Higgs boson

  Hinduism

  hippocampus

  Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The

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  Hofmann, Albert

  Homebrew Computer Club

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  Horrigan, John

  Hubble Space Telescope

  human genome

  Human Genome Project

  humor

  hunting

  hybrid cars

  hydrogen

  hydrogen fuel

  hypertension

  hypothalamus

  IBM

  ID. See intelligent design IGCC

  Ig Nobel Prize

  immortality

  immune system

  immunosuppressive drugs

  impulse control

  Inconvenient Truth, An (film)

  India

  Indiana

  innovation

  instant messaging

  Institute for Biological and Energy

  Alternatives

  insulin

  integrated gasification combined cycle

  Intel

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  intelligence

  intelligent design

  Dover School Board case (Pa.)

  Jones, Judge John E., III and

  Kansas Board of Education and

  internal-combustion engines

  International Space Station

  Internet

  in vitro fertilization

  ions

  Iowa

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  Iran

  Iris (film)

  Islam. See Muslims islet cells

  ISS. See International Space Station Itten, Johannes

  Jacoby, Susan

  Jaffe, Amy

  James Webb Space Telescope

  Japan

  Jastrow, Robert

  Jefferson, Richard

  Jeopardy! (TV game show)

  Jobs, Steve

  Jodziewicz, Laurie

  Jones, John E.

  Jones, Mary H.

  Jones, Tom

  Joy, Bill

  Judaism

  Kadak, Andrew

  Kammen, Dan

  Kansas

  Kansas Board of Education

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  Kelly, Richard C.

  knock-out pigs

  knowing, joy of

  Krauss, Lawrence

  Kroto, Harry

  Kulinowski, Kristen

  Kyoto Protocol

  La Hague

  Lancôme

  Lane, Neal

  language

  Lanza, Robert

  Large Hadron Collider

  laughter

  L-dopa

  Leakey, Louis

  Leakey, Mary

  learning

  LED technology

  Legends of Poker Tournament

  leukemia

  levees

  Lewis, C. S.

  LHC. See Large Hadron Collider Lieber, Charles

  life safety

  light