The Truth Behind The Modern Science Marvels

The April issue of Discover Magazine discusses the science of invisibility cloaks, uncover the hidden risks of eating fish and reveal how to bring a dinosaur back to life — it just takes $30 million and one chicken. Corey Powell of Discovery Magazine was here to explain more.

• Scientists Build Harry Potter-like Invisibility Cloaks
Physicist know how to make a person or an object invisible: grab a ray of light from the backside of an object, wrap around the object, and then send it on its way as if the object wasn’t there at all.

Now, invisibility cloaks are a reality. Recently, David Smith, an experimental physicist at the University of California at San Diego constructed a prototype cloak that block out microwaves. By the summer, Smith believes someone will build one that can obstruct light. Such a device could hide a person— or a tank, or a military jet.

Other applications of the invisibility cloak include building better computers and DVDs, improving cancer treatments and airport security, and constructing countertop food factories.

• The Truth Behind Fish And Mercury Poisoning
Investigative reporter David Duncan tested his body to find out how his body responds to the toxins in fish.

After getting his DNA tested for the mercury retention gene, he found out it takes his body longer to break down mercury than it takes most people — showing how a person’s genes, dietary habits and metabolism can affect a person’s overall health. Duncan also found out how much arsenic and DDT persists in his blood, in an attempt to see first-hand how researchers are examining how genes interact with the environment.

In this burgeoning field of “envirogenomics,” scientists are testing humans for genetic markers that determine the health effects of pollutants on our bodies. More of Duncan’s guinea pigging efforts are chronicled in his new book, Experimental Man, which is available now. Duncan is available for radio and TV interviews.

• Should Everyone Be On Ritalin?
It seems like everyone is pumping their brains full of performance enhancing drugs, so should you start?

College students have already begun taking the drug Modafini to do better in school. A study showed that students on Modafini (in the same class as Ritalin) performed better on standardized tests because the drug activated a key area in the brain.

Pharmaceutical companies are continuing to fuel mass consumption by developing even more of these cognitive enhancing pills, tailored to an individual’s ambition: take one to be a surgeon, another to be a fighter pilot, and one to be a Ph.D. student.

Is this the next stage in human evolution? Or is it a dangerous pharmaceutical arms race, in which the people (or nations) that don’t pop pills get left behind?

Corey Powell of Discovery Magazine