smithsonian magazine 2014-05

SEEING INTO THE FUTURE

SmithsonianMay 2014 | smithsonian.com

Patrick Stewart Looks Ahead

The Worlds Most Lovable Robot

Sci-fis Idea Laboratory

Forecast for The Planet: Hot, Hot, Hot!

Turbo- Charging Your Brain

The Search for Other Earths

Americas Tech Anxiety

Kaboom! How to Listen to the Big Bang

by BRIAN GREENE

How I Helped a Devastated Forest Make a Comeback

by GERMAINE GREER

Peter Matthiessens New Novel Revisits the Holocaust

by RON ROSENBAUM

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May 2014 | SMITHSONIAN.COM 1

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Contents

Signs of LifeDriven to make the most of her time on this

planet, MIT astronomer Sara Seager has

set herself the goal of discovering another

Earth in her lifetime BY COREY POWELL

Contributors 2

Discussion 4

From the Editor 6

Phenomenon 9This month our theme is reversals,

of Earths magnetic eld, rainforest

devastation and traumatic memories

Listening to the Big Bang 19Just-reported ripples in space

may open a window on the very

beginning of the universe

The White Veil 28 Peter Matthiessen takes on his

most controversial subject yet in his

searching new novel set at Auschwitz

Caf Future 57A new poem by David Yezzi

Science Friction 60A Pew-Smithsonian poll reveals

Americans arent quite ready for

driverless cars or lab-grown meat

The Pay Phone 1982 74A new poem by Joshua Mehigan

Smithsonian 80Whats going on around the Mall

Fast Forward 104

34 38 48 52 68

MAY 2014 Volume 45, Number 2

62 COVER: Sir Patrick Stewart photographed by Dan Winters

THIS PAGE: James Webb Space Telescope

Brave New Words Science ction

isnt meant

to predict the

future, but

implausible

ideas that re

inventors

imaginations

often, amazingly,

come true

BY EILEEN GUNN

Mind CraftAn astonishing

surgical opera-

tion called

deep brain

stimulation is

providing relief

to people with

movement

disorders, even

as it raises trou-

bling questions

BY DAVID NOONAN

Command Performance Patrick Stewart,

whose leading

roles in Star

Trek and X-Men

have taken him

into the far fu-

ture, re ects on

art, 21st-century

science and

robot ethics

BY MARK STRAUSS

Hot Enough for You?As global

warming

makes sizzling

temperatures

more common,

will human

beings be able to

keep their cool?

New research

suggests not

BY JERRY ADLER

National TreasureWith its stubby

cylindrical

body and playful

whistles and

beeps, the lov-

able Star Wars

robot R2-D2 is

just the right

mix of man

and machine

BY CLIVE THOMPSON

70The Real McCoy The Starship

Enterprises

cranky doctor

would approve

of technology

that could turn

smartphones

into devices

that can detect

disease

BY ARIEL SABAR


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2 SMITHSONIAN.COM | May 2014

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Dan Winters The eminent photographer, filmmaker

and writer revisited the past for our Future

issue when he photographed Patrick

Stewart for our cover at a New York

studio (p. 48). Id shot him 23 years

prior for Vanity Fair, says Winters, who

jogged Stewarts memory of their initial

meeting by presenting him with a print

from that portrait session. Winters, a

frequent Smithsonian contributor, is the

recipient of countless honors, including

the Alfred Eisenstadt Award for Maga-

zine Photography. His fth book, Road to

Seeing, was published in January.

Contributors

PHOTOILLUSTRATIONS BY Eda Akaltun

Eileen Gunn

A science ction writer

who has won the pres-

tigious Nebula Award

for Best Short Story,

Gunn says the genre

prepares readers for a

future of rapid change

(p. 34). Finding your-

self somewhere where

you dont know whats

going on can be un-

settling, she says. Her

book of stories Ques-

tionable Practices

appeared in March.

Corey Powell

The veteran sci-

ence journalist and

editor-at-large for

Discover magazine

pro led the MIT as-

tronomer Sara Seager,

a leading authority on

exoplanets (p. 62). I

think there are some

ways in which shes a

mystery to herself,

he says. She explores

the inner space of

her psyche, kind of

the way she explores

outer space.

David Noonan

In his career as a med-

ical writer, Noonan

has watched dozens

of neurosurgeries. But

this months piece on

deep brain stimulation

(p. 38) marked his

rst interview with a

patient while his brain

was being operated

on. The patient and

doctor were talking

to each other while

the patients skull

had been opened, he

says. It was extraordi-

nary. A former News-

week senior editor,

Noonan is the author

of two books, includ-

ing Neuro, about the

early days of modern

neurology.

Ariel Sabar

An innovative

UCLA researcher

who is turning the

cellphone into a

clinical laboratory is

Sabars subject this

month (p. 70). Still,

neither the inventor

nor the author wants

to replace the bond

between doctor and

patient with a gadget.

Sabars 2008 memoir,

My Fathers Paradise,

won the National Book

Critics Circle Award.

Mark Strauss

In his seven years as a

senior editor at Smith-

sonian, Strauss has

covered everything

from archaeology to

science ction. Still,

interviewing Patrick

Stewart (p. 48) was an

eye-opener, he says,

a vivid reminder that

the greatest actors

are among the most

devoted students of

humanity. They often

understand ourselves

better than we do.

Germaine Greer

For two years, the

renowned feminist

and conservation-

ist searched for a

piece of devastated

Australia that she

might be able to x. In

2001, she found Cave

Creek, a swath of 150

acres of battered

rainforest in south-

east Queensland.

She describes her

hands-on restoration

(p. 9) in her latest

book, White Beech:

The Rainforest Years.

Cave Creek, she says,

is particularly special

because its subtropi-

cala member of

the most depleted

class of forests.


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Discussion

to support sweatshop conditions in

Central America and elsewhere?

Camille WalkinshawCOLUMBUS, GEORGIA

Mystery Solved? I read the excerpt [Journey Into the

Kingdom of Spirits] from Carl Hoff -

mans book Savage Harvest in your

March issue with great interest and

some dismay. Milt Machlin rst pub-

lished precisely the same thesis 45

years ago in Argosy magazine and in

his remarkable 1972

book, The Search for Mi-

chael Rockefeller. Milts

book, along with 16mm

lm he shot , became the

basis of our award-win-

ning 2010 documen-

tary, The Search for

Michael Rockefeller.

Milt and photographer

Malcolm Kirk inter-

viewed in person all of

the Dutch missionaries

Mr. Hoff man quotes, and most of the

other eyewitnesses . Milts conclu-

sion was that Michael was killed and

probably eaten by three natives of

Otsjanep . All this is simply echoed

by Mr. Hoff man. Any author in this

field should acknowledge Mach-

lins groundbreaking, widely pub-

lished work . Your magazines claim

that Michael Rockefellers fate has

remained a mystery for 50 years,

until now, is pure hyperbole and

frankly dishonest.

Fraser C. HestonDIRECTOR, THE SEARCH FOR

MICHAEL ROCKEFELLER

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Editors response:

Milt Machlin did publish a thesis,

one that our excerpt notes had been

FROM THE EDITORS Our third annual

feature on Americas best small towns

to visit moved hundreds of readers to

debate our picks. On Facebook, Jeff rey

Doonan took a broader perspective: I

moved from #5 Woods Hole to Istan-

bul, Turkey, about 25 years ago. It was

a great little place, but the world is full

of great little places, explore more.

Blending In Despite their detractors, the nearly

70,000 Bhutanese who were wel-

c o m e d b y A m e r i c a

[Manchesters Melting

Pot] do indeed set an

example of the kind

of people that Amer-

icans like to imagine

themselves to be. I say

soften the refugees cul-

ture shock as they try

to preserve the idea of

blending happiness with

their love of education,

ambition and the envi-

ronment. Many, many thanks for this

inspiring story.

Tova NavarraMIDDLETOWN, NEW JERSEY

Japanese AmericanaHow ironic that the Japanese ap-

preciate the high quality of [early

20th-century] American-made gar-

ments [Re-Made in Japan] when

our own country sold out the very

workers who produced them. Ameri-

can textile and garment workers were

betrayed by government policies and

industry. They were told they could

be retrained for technology jobs that

never materialized. As a result, many

good blue-collar workers lost every-

thing. Was it morally worth it to de-

stroy a vibrant American industry

that provided solid middle-class jobs

CONTACT US

Send letters to [email protected] or to

Letters, Smithsonian, MRC 513, P.O. Box

37012, Washington, D.C. 20013. Include a

telephone number and address. Letters

may be edited for clarity or space.

Because of the high volume of mail we

receive, we cannot respond to all letters.

Send queries about the Smithsonian

Institution to [email protected] or to OVS,

Public Inquiry Mail Service, P.O. Box

37012, Washington, D.C. 20013.

FOLLOW US

@Smithsonianmag

Facebook.com/smithsonianmagazine

Interesting article in current Smithsonian about how emotions travel via social mediarage & awe the fastest; melancholia, the slowest. @JoyceCarolOates ON TWITTER

circulating since at least 1962. Carl

Hoffman is the first writer to find

sufficient evidence to confirm and

explain it. That evidence, which was

not in Machlins book, includes the

report led by Max Lepr, the Dutch

government offi cial who led the vio-

lent raid on the village of Otsjanep

that preceded Michael Rockefellers

disappearance; the reports filed by

the Dutch Catholic priests Cornelius

van Kessel and Hubertus von Peij on

what Asmat villagers were saying

right after Rockefellers disappear-

ance; the report filed by the Dutch

government investigator Wim van

de Waal after his three-month resi-

dence in Otsjanep; and documents

from Dutch government and Cath-

olic Church officials discussing the

non-disclosure of the priests and

investigators information. This new

evidence was included in the Smith-

sonian excerpt. Hoffman discusses

Machlins work in Savage Harvest.

CorrectionIn Americas Best Small Towns, we

mistakenly identified the producer

of MusicFest in Steamboat Springs.

He is John Dickson. John Waldman,

whom we quoted, is the promoter for

the Steamboat Springs Free Summer

Concert Series.


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Fifty years ago, a Russian-born bio-

chemist with mutton-chop sideburns

and an intense fear of ying visited

the Worlds Fair in Queens, New

York. Inspired by a General Electric

pavilion lled with modern electric

gadgets, he typed up an article pre-

dicting what the world would be like

in 2014. Among his many astonishing

prognostications were the elements

of electric coff eemakers, microwave

ovens, cellphones, Skype, driverless

cars and arti cial meat .

It should come as no surprise

that this prophet was a science c-

tion writer, a novelist named Isaak

Yudovich Ozimov, better known as

Isaac Asimov. Ever since Jules Verne

and H.G. Wells, science ction writ-

ers have been conjuring up possible

futures for usand for scientists and

engineers, who are often sci- fans as

teenagersto build.

We now live in a science ction

world, a time beyond 1984 and 2001

when many far-fetched inventions

have come true, and the time be-

tween imagination and actualization

is shrinking every year. No idea is too

sci- anymorethere are people right

now tackling everything from raising

extinct animals from the dead to tele-

portation to tribbles.

In this issue, we peer into the future

that is being constructed for us. Weve

chosen a fearless leader for this time-

travel trip: Sir Patrick Stewart, a.k.a.

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek

and Professor Xavier of the X-Men

(Command Performance, p. 48). We

follow with stories on a tricorder that

would have made Bones less grumpy

(Inventing the Real McCoy, p. 70);

daily life in a globally warmed world

(Hot Enough for You? p. 52); and our

own Smithsonian-Pew poll on Ameri-

cans attitudes about the future (p. 60).

We are celebrating this issue with

a big event May 16-18, our second

annual Future Is Here festival (de-

tails at Smithsonian.com/future). A

starry lineup of speakers will unveil

the cutting edge of their elds, in-

cluding exo-planet seeker Sara Seager

(Signs of Life, p. 62), de-extinction

expert Stewart Brand, Google moon-

shot leader Rich DeVaul, George Takei

( Star Treks Sulu), and physicist

Brian Greene (Listening to the Big

Bang, p. 19). On May 17, Patrick Stew-

art will host the D.C. premiere of his

new lm, X-Men: Days of Future Past.

In our own most recent past, our

April issue, we published a column

by the Secretary of the Smithsonian,

G. Wayne Clough, that was a perfect

combination of future and past. Dr.

Clough, who will be retiring in 2015,

wrote eloquently about looking for-

ward to revisiting his rural childhood

hometown of Douglas, Georgia.

Dr. Clough has written more than

60 columns for the magazine, cover-

ing his own work and the vast reach of

the Smithsonian Institution. Its been

a great run and diffi cult to say good-

bye. But there are now so many other

sources of information on the SI, in-

cluding our thriving website, Smith-

sonian.com, that weve decided to dis-

continue the From the Castle column .

I cant imagine a better one to end on.

Michael Caruso, EDITOR IN CHIEF

[email protected]

From the Editor

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Smithsonian Smithsonian.comEDITOR IN CHIEF Michael Caruso

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Mrs. Gay F. Wray

* Ex-O cio


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WorldMags.net


I LLUSTRATION BY Traci Daberko

to life, but creating habitat

for hedgehogs will give other

hedgehogs a better chance of

breeding successfully so that

numbers can build up again.

In suburban gardens

across the country people

are making tunnels under

their fences so that hedge-

hogs can travel without

having so often to cross

roads. It doesnt take much

and costs nothing, but it

puts the householder on the

side of Earth, which is the

hedgehogs home as much

as it is ours .

The swallows that have

nested at my place in Essex

ever since I have didnt turn

up one year. Or the next. Ten

springs passed, and I thought

Once great wrongs are done, its rarely possible to undo

them. Earth, the most exuberant planet known to exist in any

galaxy, carries great wounds upon its lovely face: denuded

hills, fertile farmlands being washed into the sea or turned

to dust, treasure houses of biodiversity annihilated, air,

land and water poisoned. It seems that nobody knows how

to reverse any of it.

And yet, in the cracks between the pavement of the

expanding cities , seedlings of long-gone forest giants con-

tinue to emerge. Earth keeps on trying to renew itself, after

radioactive leak, after nuclear explosion, after earthquake

and eruption, ood and tsunami. The planets powers of

recuperation and restoration are almost unbelievable. Give

it an inch and it will give you a mile.

Field owers no longer grow amid the crops in Englands

elds , but once the backhoes are withdrawn from roadworks,

poppies spring from the disturbed ground. The seed they

have grown from blew off the elds maybe a generation ago,

and has lain in the soil ever since, waiting for someone or

something to break the sod. Year on year the poppies keep

turning up, every time bringing their promise of resurrection.

The dead hedgehog on the road cannot be brought back

henomenonA CURATED COLLECTION

OF NEWS AND OPINIONS

ON A SINGLE THEME

Life must be

understood

backwards.

But it must

be lived

forwards.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD

This month were thinking about . . .


WorldMags.net


REVERSAL

Phenomenon

they couldnt possibly re-

member the barn where they

had built their mud nests so

many years before. I stopped

scanning the sky for them. I

was working in the green-

house when I heard their

call and ran out to see. They

were ying in and out of the

little entrance I had cut out

of the barn door for them, for

all the world as if they had

never been away. And they

have come back every year

since. They too tell me that

everything is not lost.

The lower orders, as we

unjustly call them, have

enormous potential for

replenishment, because

they reproduce in huge

numbers. A butter y that

this year seems extinct may

turn up in clouds next year,

given a diff erent weather

pattern. This is a massive

reversal of fortunes, but the

butter y is born to it.

Insects are the virtuosos

of reversal, because meta-

morphosis is their specialty.

They begin as earthbound

larvae that do nothing but

eat and are as likely to end

up as winged creatures that

never eat. Even the humble

cockroach can have several

nymphal stages; rainforest

cockroach nymphs can be

spectacular. Even our ex-

hausted honeybees might be

capable of coming back from

the brink, if we improved

their genetic diversity.

The further down we go

the more transformational

the powers of the creatures

we meet, until we arrive at

the viruses that can change

themselves faster than we

can find ways of dealing

with them. We imagine our-

selves to be at war with such

creatures, when they are our

cousins and we need them

on our side. If we colonize

Mars, we will need to take

them with us.

In the last hundred years a

patch of subtropical rainfor-

est in southeast Queensland,

Australia, has been logged,

burned, cleared, plowed,

grazed and sprayed with

Agent Orange. Yet I knew

when I saw it in 2001, while

searching for a piece of my

devastated birthplace that I

could x, that it could rebuild

itself. All I had to do was to

remove the obstacles that pre-

vented its coming back into

its own, the cattle, the inva-

sive weeds, most of them gar-

den escapes and deliberately

introduced pasture grasses.

There was enough seed

in the canopy to reveg-

etate much more than a

mere 150 acres; most of it

carried larval infestation,

which meant that the pol-

linators the trees required

would be regenerated along

with them. No sooner did

the numbers of fruiting

trees build up than the bats

turned up, a dozen species

of them. The bird species

multiplied, including some

thought to be on the verge of

extinction. And the inverte-

brate population exploded.

The reversal of the for-

ests devastation may seem

slow; its taken 13 years so

far, but for at least ve of

those I and my wonderful

workforce were learning

what to do (and what not

to do). It has now gathered

speed, and soon there will

be nothing but maintenance

left to do. The whole process

has taken less than an in-

stant of evolutionary time.

GERMAINE GREER


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Flip this artwork over,

and youll nd another ka-

leidoscope of pastel hues

stretched over a raw wood-

en frame . The canvas of

Untitled (Reverse) is cut to

create aps, some attached

to what looks like the front of

the frame and some pulled

around to the back . There

is not a hierarchy of either

side, says Maria Walker,

a Brooklyn-based artist who

views paintings as three-

dimensional objects rather

than surface images. Her

goal: to create sculptures

out of the raw materials. She

twists and manipulates the

canvas, often opting for un-

conventional frame shapes

and, in this case, applying

primer sparingly so that the

paint seeps into the canvas.

While many of Walkers

pieces stand upright or

protrude from walls, giving

gallery visitors a fuller view,

Untitled (Reverse) hangs

at, hiding one half. This

creates a tension, says

Walker, making the viewer

wonder, Whats on the oth-

er side? KIRSTIN FAWCETT

View more of Walkers art at

Smithsonian.com/walker

A painter looks

at her canvas

from a new

perspective

FlipArt


WorldMags.net


LIT

TLE R

ED

R

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ILLU

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BIB

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Phenomenon

REVERSAL

FOLKLORISTS HAVE LONG BE-

lieved that the tale of Little

Red Riding Hood originated

in China, where, instead of

a cross-dressing wolf, the

villain was a shape-shifting

tiger. But after studying 58

versions of the story from

Europe, Africa and Asia, an-

thropologist Jamie Tehrani

of Durham University in En-

gland concludes the reverse

is true: The little girl rst

took the trek to her grand-

mothers in Europe, and later

her story traveled east.

Tehrani subjected the

story to phylogenetic analy-

sis, a method biologists

use to map the diverging

evolutionary branches of

species. Stories, like living

organisms, acquire and

lose traits over time. In this

case, Tehrani analyzed 72

features of the plot, such as

whether the main character

is male or female and how

that character is tricked.

He believes that the tale

traveled west to east some-

time during the 12th to 14th

centuries. MARK STRAUSS

Little Reds

First

Hood

In a large, warehouse-like

laboratory on the Univer-

sity of Maryland campus,

a stainless steel sphere ten

feet in diameter whirls rap-

idly. It is the largest spinning

model of the Earths interior

ever built and resembles the

Star Wars Death Star, only

shinier. Geophysicist Daniel

Lathrop wants, among other

things, to use it to predict

when the Earths magnetic

eld will next reverse.

Over the course of our

planets history, the eld has

ipped hundreds of times:

Magnetic north has slid to-

ward the bottom of the plan-

et while magnetic south has

traveled north. Signatures

in volcanic rocks reveal that

the switch last happened

780,000 years ago, when

human ancestors were just

learning to make re.

Were still here, so well

probably survive the next

reversalbut we dont know

what to expect. During the

reversal, a gradual event that

takes about a thousand years,

the eld will weaken. With-

out the protection it off ers,

will our suns radiation bom-

bard us? Will migrating birds

relying on the eld become

hopelessly confused? And

when will it happen? Some

estimates say soon, which,

for a geophysicist, could be

in the next 10,000 years. It

could even start tomorrow .

Thats where Lathrops

sphere comes in. Within is

nested another spherethe

space between the two lled

with 12 tons of liquid sodium,

heated to 250 degrees Fahr-

enheit. When set spinning,

the setup mimics the roiling

liquid iron in the Earths out-

er core, which forms electri-

cal currents that generate the

magnetic eld in a process

called a dynamo. His team

hopes to nd out how Earths

eld forms and evolves. Any

theory theyre able to even

rule out will be front-page

news to many of us, says

Peter Olson, an earth and

planetary scientist at Johns

Hopkins University.

Just getting the sphere

going was a major feat: eight

years on design and con-

struction, two years of ex-

periments with water , and

another six months to drain

the water and pour in the

sodium, an element prone to

explosions. Hazards have to

be respected, Lathrop says.

With the sphere spinning

at 45 miles per hour, and

a little help from electro-

magnets, the team saw

short-lived magnetic bursts

within the sodium. When

the spinning ramps up to

nearly 90 miles per hour

later this year, the sodium

might generate a eld with-

out the extra nudge. If so,

and with one second of the

experiment equaling 5,000

years of Earth time , the re-

searchers could see a rever-

sal before everyone else on

the planet. HALEY EDWARDS

A giant whirligig tries to predict Earths next magnetic ip

Pole ReversalWhen a sodium- lled model

of the Earths outer core

spins at full speed, it could

generate a dynamo.


WorldMags.net

Joan UronisDiagnosed at age 62.


WorldMags.net


REVERSAL

ers call it, works well with

recent memories but not so

well with deeply entrenched,

long-term horrors. But a new

study in mice, from the lab-

oratory of fear memory re-

searcher Li-Huei Tsai of MIT,

now promises to change that.

The scientists, who report-

ed the study in Cell, taught

lab mice fear by the standard

method of applying a mild

electric shock, accompanied

by a loud beep . Mice show

fear by freezing in place, and

they quickly learned to freeze

when they were put in the test

box or heard the beep. It was

a conditioned response,

like Ivan Pavlov ringing a bell

to make dogs salivate, in his

pioneering experiments on

learning and memory.

For mice, fear extinction

therapy meant going back

in the test box for a while,

but without the shock. That

alone was enough to unlearn

the conditioned response if

it was a new memory, just a

day old. But if the mice had

been trained 30 days earlier,

the therapy didnt work.

So Tsai and lead author

Johannes Grff combined

the extinction therapy with

a type of drug that has re-

cently shown promise in

mice as a way to improve

thinking and memory.

HDAC inhibitors (that is,

histone deacetylase inhib-

itors) boost the activity

of genes in ways that help

brain cells form new con-

nections; new connections

are the basis of learning.

The HDAC inhibitors alone

had no eff ect, but drugs and

therapy together seemed to

open up and reconnect the

neurons where long-term

traumatic memory had until

then been locked away. Mice

could be taught to overcome

the entire conditioned re-

sponse or just a partignoring

the beep, for instance, but still

freezing in the test box .

Getting from mice to hu-

mans is, of course, always a

great leap. But the U.S. Food

and Drug Administration

has already approved inves-

tigative use of some HDAC

inhibitors for certain can-

cers and in ammatory dis-

orders, which could make

it easier, Grff speculates,

to get to clinical testing for

human psychiatric therapy.

Marie Mon ls, who stud-

ies fear memory at the Uni-

versity of Texas at Austin,

calls the new study beauti-

fully done, with potential to

open up really interesting

avenues for research and

treatment. That could be big

news for a society alarmed by

the surge in military suicides

and other PTSD-related

problems from more than a

decade of war . For the des-

perate patients themselves,

science now holds out hope

that it will soon be possible,

in eff ect, to rewind memory

to a time before trauma stole

their peace of mind.

RICHARD CONNIFF

Phenomenon

The best way to forget an

alarming memory, oddly, is

to remember it rst. Thats

why the 7 percent of Amer-

ican adults who experience

post-traumatic stress disor-

der (or PTSD) at some point

in their lives are often asked

by therapists to recall the

incident that taught them

the fear in the rst place.

Stirring up a memory

makes it a little unstable,

and for a window of perhaps

three hours, its possible to

modify it before it settles

down again, or reconsoli-

dates, in the brain. Reliving

traumatic moments over and

over in safe conditions can

help a person unlearn the

automatic feeling of alarm .

The trouble is that fear ex-

tinction therapy, as research-

WEEKS BARBRA STREISANDS

ALBUM MEMORIES SPENT IN

THE BILLBOARD TOP 200

FearlessWill scientists

soon be able

to erase our

most traumatic

memories?

104I LLUSTRATION BY Richard DownsWorldMags.netWorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

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IN 1572, A TINY EXPLODING STAR IN THE CONSTELLATION CASSIOPEIA

caught the eye of the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The

burst of light, at its peak rivaling the brightness of Venus, was

fueled by the radioactive decay of enormous quantities of

metals , and then faded away in 1574. But today astronomers

using X-ray observatories continue to study that same galactic

drama , whose expanding cloud of debris now spans some 140

trillion miles . A s the iron created in the explosion ew outward,

slamming into interstellar gas, the collisions generated a shock

wave headed in the opposite direction at millions of miles per

hour. The energy blasted the iron, causing it to emit X-rays (in

red ), and now astronomers have for the rst time mapped the

spectacular impact of the reverse shock wave . Hiroya Yama-

guchi of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center and colleagues,

including Randall Smith of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center

for Astrophysics, discovered that the heated iron-rich gas

reaches roughly 100 million degrees Fahrenheithotter than

the center of the Sun and, Yamaguchi says, much higher than

expected. KEN CROSWELL

Cosmic FlashbackHalf a millennium

later, a famous

explosion has

new life

Phenomenon

REVERSAL

Every atom in your

body came from a

star that exploded.

L AWRENCE KRAUSS HA

RVA

RD

-S

MIT

HS

ON

IAN

C

EN

TER

FO

R A

ST

RO

PH

YS

ICS

I N D E X

30Number of species or

populations delisted from the

Endangered Species Act

thanks to recovery

10Survival time, in minutes,

of the only animal ever brought

back from extinction, a

Pyrenean ibex in 2003

0.4Average height in inches that

people over age 40 lose

each decade

741Population of grizzly bears

in the Yellowstone region, as

estimated by the U.S. Geological

Survey , up from 136 in 1975

89.3The longest reverse ramp

car jump, in feetrecently set

by reality TV star Rob Dyrdek

in a Chevy Sonic

18The upper estimate of the cost,

in billions, of re-reversing the

Chicago River, to keep invasive

species out of the Great Lakes


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ST

EFFEN

R

ICH

TER

/ H

AR

VA

RD

U

NIV

ER

SIT

Y

Listening to the Big Bang

A remote telescope finds support

for a revolutionary theory about

the formation of the universe

or six months

SCIENCE THE UNIVERSE

Less than a mile from the South Pole, the

Dark Sector Labs Bicep2 telescope (at

left) searches for signs of in ation. BY BRIAN GREENE photograph by Steffen Richter


WorldMags.net


to grasp our origins. But Ill pick up

the narrative laterwith Albert Ein-

steins discovery of the general theory

of relativity, the mathematical basis

of space, time and all modern cosmo-

logical thought.

Warped Space to the Big Bang

In the early years of the 20th century,

Einstein rewrote the rules of space

and time with his special theory of

relativity. Until then, most everyone

adhered to the Newtonian perspec-

tivethe intuitive perspectivein

which space and time provide an un-

changing arena wherein events take

place. But as Einstein described it, in

the spring of 1905 a storm broke loose

in his mind, a torrential downpour

of mathematical insight that swept

away Newtons universal arena. Ein-

stein argued convincingly that there

is no universal timeclocks in mo-

tion tick more slowly and there is no

universal spacerulers in motion are

shorter. The absolute and unchanging

arena gave way to a space and time

that were malleable and exible.

Fresh off this success, Einstein

then turned to an even steeper chal-

lenge. For well over two centuries,

Newtons universal law of gravity had

done an impressive job at predicting

the motion of everything from planets

to comets. Even so, there was a puz-

zle that Newton himself articulated:

How does gravity exert its in uence?

How does the Sun in uence the Earth

across some 93 million miles of es-

sentially empty space? Newton had

provided an owners manual allowing

the mathematically adept to calculate

the eff ect of gravity, but he was unable

to throw open the hood and reveal

how gravity does what it does.

In search of the answer, Einstein

engaged in a decade-long obsessive,

grueling odyssey through arcane

mathematics and creative ights of

tronomers led by Harvard-Smithso-

nian researcher John Kovac braved

the elements to point a brawny tele-

scope known as Bicep2 (an acronym

for the less euphonious Background

Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Po-

larization) at a patch of the southern

sky. In March, the team released its

results. Should the conclusions stand,

they will open a spectacular new win-

dow on the earliest moments of the

universe, and will deservedly rank

among the most important cosmolog-

ical ndings of the past century.

Its a story whose roots can be

traced back to early creation stories

intended to satisfy the primal urge

physical fancy. By 1915, his genius

blazed through the nal equations of

the general theory of relativity, nally

revealing the mechanism underlying

the force of gravity.

The answer? Space and time. Al-

ready unshackled from their Newto-

nian underpinnings by special relativ-

ity, space and time sprung fully to life

in general relativity. Einstein showed

that much as a warped wooden oor

can nudge a rolling marble, space and

time can themselves warp, and nudge

terrestrial and heavenly bodies to fol-

low the trajectories long ascribed to

the in uence of gravity.

However abstract the formula-

tion, general relativity made de ni-

tive predictions, some of which were

quickly confirmed through astro-

nomical observations. This inspired

mathematically oriented thinkers

the world over to explore the theo-

rys detailed implications. It was the

work of a Belgian priest, Georges

Lematre, who also held a doctorate

in physics, that advanced the story

were following. In 1927, Lematre

applied Einsteins equations of gen-

eral relativity not to objects within

the universe, like stars and black

holes, but to the entire universe itself.

The result knocked Lematre back

on his heels. The math showed that

the universe could not be static: The

fabric of space was either stretching

or contracting, which meant that the

universe was either growing in size

or shrinking.

When Lematre alerted Einstein

to what hed found, Einstein scoff ed.

He thought Lematre was pushing

the math too far. So certain was Ein-

stein that the universe, as a whole,

was eternal and unchanging, that he

not only dismissed mathematical

analyses that attested to the con-

trary, he inserted a modest amend-

ment into his equations to ensure

that the math would accommodate

his prejudice.

And prejudice it was. In 1929, the

astronomical observations of Edwin

Hubble, using the powerful tele-

scope at Mount Wilson Observa-

tory, revealed that distant galaxies

are all rushing away. The universe

is expanding. Einstein gave himself

a euphemistic slap in the forehead,

a reprimand for not trusting results

coming out of his own equations, and

brought his thinkingand his equa-

tionsinto line with the data.

Great progress, of course. But new

insights yield new puzzles.

As Lematre had pointed out, if

space is now expanding, then by

winding the cosmic lm in reverse

we conclude that the observable uni-

verse was ever smaller, denser and

hotter ever further back in time. The

seemingly unavoidable conclusion

is that the universe we see emerged

from a phenomenally tiny speck that

erupted, sending space swelling out-

wardwhat we now call the

Big Bang.

The result knocked him back on his heels. The math showed that the fabric of space was either stretching or contracting, which meant

the universe was either growing or shrinking.



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would now have dropped to a mere

2.7 degrees above absolute zero,

placing their wavelength in the mi-

crowave part of the spectrumex-

plaining why this possible relic of

the Big Bang is called the cosmic

microwave background radiation.

In 1964, two Bell Labs scientists,

Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson,

were at wits end, frustrated by a large

ground-based antenna designed for

satellite communications. Regardless

of where they pointed the antenna,

they encountered the audiophiles

nightmare: an incessant background

hiss. For months they sought but

failed to nd the source. Then, Pen-

zias and Wilson caught wind of the

cosmological calculations being done

at Princeton suggesting there should

be a low-level radiation lling space.

The incessant hiss, the researchers

realized, was arising from the Big

Bangs photons tickling the antennas

receiver. The discovery earned Pen-

zias and Wilson the 1978 Nobel Prize.

The prominence of the Big Bang

theory skyrocketed, impelling scien-

tists to pry the theory apart, seeking

unexpected implications and possi-

ble weaknesses. A number of import-

ant issues were brought to light, but

the most essential was also the most

basic.

The Big Bang is often described as

the modern scienti c theory of cre-

ation, the mathematical answer to

Genesis . But this notion obscures an

essential fallacy: The Big Bang the-

ory does not tell us how the universe

began. It tells us how the universe

evolved, beginning a tiny fraction of

a second after it all started. As the

rewound cosmic lm approaches the

rst frame, the mathematics breaks

down, closing the lens just as the cre-

ation event is about to ll the screen.

And so, when it comes to explaining

the bang itselfthe primordial push

But if true, what sent space swell-

ing? And how could such an outland-

ish proposal be tested?

The In ationary Theory

If the universe emerged from a swel-

tering hot and intensely dense pri-

meval atom, as Lematre called it,

then as space swelled the universe

should have cooled off. Calculations

undertaken at George Washington

University in the 1940s, and later at

Princeton in the 1960s, showed that

the Big Bangs residual heat would

manifest as a bath of photons (parti-

cles of light) uniformly filling space.

The temperature of the photons

that must have set the universe head-

long on its expansionary coursethe

Big Bang theory is silent.

It would fall to a young postdoc-

toral fellow in the physics depart-

ment of Stanford University, Alan

Guth, to take the vital step toward

lling that gap. Guth and his collab-

orator Henry Tye of Cornell Univer-

sity were trying to understand how

certain hypothetical particles called

monopoles might be produced in the

universes earliest moments. But cal-

culating deep into the night of De-

cember 6, 1979, Guth took the work

in a diff erent direction. He realized

that not only did the equations show

that general relativity plugged an es-

sential gap in Newtonian gravity

providing gravitys mechanism

they also revealed that gravity could

behave in unexpected ways. Accord-

ing to Newton (and everyday expe-

rience) gravity is an attractive force

that pulls one object toward another.

The equations were showing that in

Einsteins formulation, gravity could

also be repulsive.

The gravity of familiar objects,

such as the Sun, Earth and Moon,

is surely attractive. But the math

showed that a diff erent source, not a

clump of matter but instead energy

embodied in a eld uniformly lling a

region, would generate a gravitational

force that would push outward. And

ferociously so. A region a mere bil-

lionth of a billionth of a billionth of

a centimeter across, lled with the

appropriate energy eldcalled the

inflaton fieldwould be wrenched

apart by the powerful repulsive grav-

ity, potentially stretching to as large

as the observable universe in a frac-

tion of a second.

And that would rightly be called a

bang. A big bang.

With subsequent re nements to

Guths initial implementation of re-

pulsive gravity by scientists includ-

ing Andrei Linde, Paul Steinhardt

and Andreas Albrecht, the in ation-

ary theory of cosmology was born. A

credible proposal for what ignited the

outward swelling of space was nally

on the theorists table. But is it right?

Testing In ation

At rst blush, it might seem a fools

errand to seek con rmation of a the-

ory that ostensibly operated for a tiny

fraction of a second nearly 14 billion

years ago. Sure, the universe is now

expanding, so something set it going

in the rst place. But is it even con-

ceivable to verify that it was sparked

by a powerful but brief ash of repul-

sive gravity?

It is. And the approach makes use,

once again, of the microwave back-

ground radiation.

To get a feel for how, imagine writ-

ing a tiny message, too small for any-

one to read, on the surface of a de ated

balloon. Then blow the balloon up.

As it stretches, your message

stretches too, becoming visible.

The Big Bang is often described as the modern scienti c theory of creation, the mathematical answer to Genesis. But this obscures a fallacy.

It does not tell us how the universe began.



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position and the speed of a particle.

For elds suff using space, the uncer-

tainty principle shows that a elds

strength is also subject to quantum

jitters, causing its value at each loca-

tion to jiggle up and down.

Decades of experiments on the

micro realm have verified that the

quantum jitters are real and ubiqui-

tous; theyre unfamiliar only because

the uctuations are too tiny to be di-

rectly observed in everyday life. Which

is where the in ationary stretching of

space comes into its own.

Much as with your message on the

expanding balloon, if the universe

underwent the stupendous expan-

sion proposed by the inflationary

theory, then the tiny quantum jit-

ters in the in aton eldremember,

thats the eld responsible for repul-

sive gravitywould be stretched into

the macro world. This would result

in the elds energy being a touch

larger in some locations, and a touch

smaller in others.

In turn, these variations in energy

would have an impact on the cosmic

microwave background radiation,

nudging the temperature slightly

higher in some locations and slightly

lower in others. Mathematical calcu-

lations reveal that the temperature

variations would be smallabout

1 part in 100,000. Butand this is

keythe temperature variations

would ll out a speci c statistical

pattern across the sky.

Beginning in the 1990s, a series of

ever more re ned observational ven-

turesground-, balloon- and space-

based telescopeshave sought these

temperature variations. And found

them. Indeed, there is breathtaking

agreement between the theoretical

predictions and the observational data.

And with that, you might think the

in ationary approach had been con-

rmed. But as a community, phys-

Similarly, if space experienced dra-

matic in ationary stretching, then tiny

physical imprints set down during the

universes earliest moments would be

stretched across the sky, possibly mak-

ing them visible too.

Is there a process that would have

imprinted a tiny message in the early

universe? Quantum physics answers

with a resounding yes. It comes

down to the uncertainty principle,

advanced by Werner Heisenberg in

1927. Heisenberg showed that the

microworld is subject to unavoid-

able quantum jitters that make it

impossible to simultaneously spec-

ify certain features, such as both the

icists are about as skeptical a group

as you will ever encounter. Over the

years, some proposed alternative ex-

planations for the data, while others

raised various technical challenges to

the in ationary approach itself. In a-

tion remained far and away the lead-

ing cosmological theory, but many felt

the smoking gun had yet to be found.

Until now.

Ripples in the Fabric of Space

Just as elds within space are sub-

ject to quantum jitters, quantum

uncertainty ensures that space itself

should be subject to quantum jitters

too. Which means that space should

undulate like the surface of a boiling

pot of water. This is unfamiliar for

the same reason that a granite table-

top seems smooth even though its

surface is riddled with microscopic

imperfectionsthe undulations hap-

pen on extraordinarily tiny scales.

But, once again, because in ation-

ary expansion stretches quantum

features into the macrorealm, the

theory predicts that the tiny undu-

lations sprout into far longer ripples

in the spatial fabric. How would we

detect these ripples, or primordial

gravitational waves, as they are more

properly called? For the third time,

the Big Bangs ubiquitous relic, the

cosmic microwave background radi-

ation, is the ticket.

Calculations show that gravita-

tional waves would imprint a twisting

pattern on the background radiation,

an iconic fingerprint of inflation-

ary expansion. (More precisely, the

background radiation arises from

oscillations in the electromagnetic

eld; the direction of these oscilla-

tions, known as the polarization, gets

twisted in the wake of gravitational

waves.) The detection of such swirls

in the background radiation has long

been revered as the gold standard for

establishing the in ationary theory,

the long sought smoking gun.

On March 12, a press release prom-

ising a major discovery, issued by

the Harvard-Smithsonian Center

for Astrophysics, North American

ground control for the Bicep2 mis-

sion, sent breathless rumors churn-

ing through the worldwide physics

community. Perhaps the swirls had

been found? At the press confer-

ence on March 17, the rumors were

con rmed. After more than a year

of careful analysis of the data, the

Bicep2 team announced that it had

achieved the rst detection of the pre-

dicted gravitational wave pattern.

Subtle swirls in the data collected

at the South Pole attest to quantum

tremors of space, stretched by in a-

tionary expansion , wafting through

the early universe.

What Does It All Mean?

The case for in ationary theory has

now grown strong, capping a century

of upheaval in cosmology. Now,

not only do we know the uni-

Is there a process that would have imprinted a tiny message in the early universe? Quantum

physics answers with a resounding yes. It comes down to the uncertainty principle.



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of the microwave swirls. Within a

years time, maybe less, some of these

groups may report their ndings.

Whats certain is that current and

future missions will provide ever

more re ned data that will sharpen

the inflationary approach. Bear in

mind that inflation is a paradigm,

not a unique theory. Theorists have

now implemented the core idea of

the bang-as-repulsive-gravity in hun-

dreds of ways (diff erent numbers of

in aton elds, diff erent interactions

between those elds and so on), with

each generally yielding slightly diff er-

ent predictions. The Bicep2 data has

already winnowed the viable models

signi cantly, and forthcoming data

will continue the process.

This all adds up to an extraordi-

nary time for the in ationary theory.

But theres an even larger lesson.

Barring the unlikely possibility that

with better measurements the swirls

disappear, we now have a new obser-

vational window onto quantum pro-

cesses in the early universe. The Bi-

cep2 data shows that these processes

happen on distance scales more than

a trillion times smaller than those

probed by our most powerful particle

accelerator, the Large Hadron Col-

lider. Some years ago, together with

a group of researchers, I took one of

the rst forays into calculating how

our cutting-edge theories of the ul-

tra-small, like string theory, might

be tested with observations of the

microwave background radiation.

Now, with this unprecedented leap

into the microrealm, I can imagine

that more re ned studies of this sort

may well herald the next phase in our

understanding of gravity, quantum

mechanics and our cosmic origins.

In ation and the Multiverse

Finally, let me address an issue Ive

so far carefully avoided, one thats as

verse is expanding, not only do we

have a credible proposal for what ig-

nited the expansion, were detecting

the imprint of quantum processes

that tickled space during that ery

rst fraction of a second.

But being one of those skeptical

physicists, albeit one whos excit-

able too, let me conclude with some

context for thinking about these de-

velopments.

The Bicep2 team has done a heroic

job, but full con dence in its results

will require con rmation by indepen-

dent teams of researchers. We wont

have to wait long. Bicep2s compet-

itors have also been in hot pursuit

wondrous as it is speculative. A pos-

sible byproduct of the in ationary

theory is that our universe may not

be the only universe.

In many in ationary models, the

in aton eld is so effi cient that even

after fueling the repulsive push of

our Big Bang, the eld stands ready

to fuel another big bang and another

still. Each bang yields its own ex-

panding realm, with our universe be-

ing relegated to one among many. In

fact, in these models, the in ationary

process typically proves never-end-

ing, its eternal, and so yields an un-

limited number of universes populat-

ing a grand cosmic multiverse.

With evidence for the in ationary

paradigm accumulating, its tempt-

ing to conclude that con dence in

the multiverse should grow too.

While Im sympathetic to that per-

spective, the situation is far from

clear-cut. Quantum uctuations not

only yield variations within a given

universea prime example being the

microwave background variations

weve discussedthey also entail

variations between the universes

themselves. And these variations can

be signi cant. In some incarnations

of the theory, the other universes

might diff er even in the kinds of par-

ticles they contain and the forces

that are at work.

In this enormously broadened per-

spective on reality, the challenge is to

articulate what the in ationary theory

actually predicts. How do we explain

what we see here, in this universe? Do

we have to reason that our form of life

couldnt exist in the diff erent environ-

ments of most other universes, and

thats why we nd ourselves herea

controversial approach that strikes

some scientists as a cop-out? The

concern, then, is that with the eternal

version of in ation spawning so many

universes, each with distinct features,

the theory has the capacity to under-

mine our very reason for having con -

dence in in ation itself.

Physicists continue to struggle

with these lacunae. Many have con-

dence that these are mere techni-

cal challenges to inflation that in

time will be solved. I tend to agree.

Inflations explanatory package is

so remarkable, and its most natural

predictions so spectacularly aligned

with observation, that it all seems

almost too beautiful to be wrong.

But until the subtleties raised by the

multiverse are resolved, it is wise to

reserve nal judgment.

If in ation is right, the visionar-

ies who developed the theory and

the pioneers who con rmed its pre-

dictions are well-deserving of the

Nobel Prize. Yet, the story would be

bigger still. Achievements of this

magnitude transcend the individual.

It would be a moment for all of us

to stand proud and marvel that our

collective creativity and insight had

revealed some of the universes most

deeply held secrets.

In fact, in these models the in ationary process typically proves never-ending, and

so yields an unlimited number of universes populating a grand cosmic multiverse.



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BY RON ROSENBAUM

rudging through the snow that blan-

kets the old whaling village of Sag

Harbor and the tiny nearby hamlet of

Sagaponack, up to Peter Matthies-

sens porch, you confront a at white

fragment of a giant whale skull. Its

affi xed to the outer wall beside the

front door. A slab of bleached bone

that inevitably conjures up the Mo-

by-Dick aura of this place on the east-

ern end of Long Island that juts out

into the Atlantic.

That ghostly whale fragment cant

help suggest Peter Matthiessen as

modern American literatures Ahab.

Not raging across oceans in search of

revenge but scouring the far ends of

the earth and its seas for something

diff erent, but equally hidden from

the surface: a mystical oneness with

the world. A glimpse not of a White

Whale but of something beyond

the White Veil of the mystics, the

veil Matthiessen believes separates

himall of usfrom True Knowl-

edge of in nitude.

Matthiessen has trekked nearly

impassable Himalayan passes and

hacked his way to dangerous out-

posts of shaman-haunted Andean

tribes, searching the far reaches of

the planet for the oceanic peace that

lies beneath the choppy surface of

the mind. All of which hes chroni-

cled in stunning works such as The

Snow Leopard and Shadow Country,

two books that made him the only

American writer to win the National

Book Award for both nonfiction

and ction, respectively. A unique

body of work, William Styron

called it, the work of a man in

photograph by Subhankar Banerjee

The White Veil

How did Peter Matthiessens lifelong quest for peace lead him to one of the

most horrifying places on earth?

MATTHIESSEN INTERVIEW


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Now, at 86, after a remarkable ca-

reer (and enduring chemotherapy for

Stage 4 leukemia), Matthiessen has

chosen his most daring and controver-

sial subject yet: Auschwitz. Not only

that, but a Zen retreat at Auschwitz.

The novel is called In Paradisea

deeply ironic title, based on an apoc-

ryphal biblical story about the hell of

separation from heaven.

Its an act of courage because, in

striding into the mine eld of debate

about the appropriate response to the

death camps, Matthiessen is taking

on a subject that has exposed those

who treat it in ction, non ction and

lm to fearsome critiques for failing

to do justice to the dread impondera-

bles of that horror.

Inside his sprawling, shingled re-

treat, the rst thing one comes upon

is a wall of Michael Rockefeller pho-

tos, stunning images of Stone Age

New Guinea tribes at war, which the

Rockefeller heir and Matthiessen

traveling companion took before he

disappeared, rumored to be the vic-

tim of cannibals. [For more on this

mystery, see Journey Into the King-

dom of the Spirits in Smithsonians

March 2014 issue.]

Matthiessens wife of some three

decades, Maria Eckhart, a soft-spoken

woman, off ers me tea and cookies and

he and I settle in at a sturdy wooden

table next to the kitchen. Outside, a

deer pokes its nose into the snow and

stares at us through the dining room

window. Inside, Matthiessen is a tall

blue specterblue sweater, blue eyes,

blue blood. Yale blue.

ecstatic contemplation of our beauti-

ful and inexplicable planet.

And lets not forget Matthiessens

other contribution to American litera-

ture: He founded (with George Plimp-

ton) the legendary Paris Review, which

has nurtured several generations of

literary stars. Matthiessen is a sui ge-

neris giant whose work has spanned

the entire stretch of post-World War

II American literature, yet one whos

moved through it with the stealth

grace of a snow leopard. No bombastic

Maileresque self-promotion or pomp-

ous Franzenian polemics. No wild,

glitterati-strewn Plimptonian parties.

In fact it is in asking him about

his experience in the Yale English

Department that I elicit what turns

out to be a fascinating tale about the

entanglement of postwar American

literature and cold war espionage.

Its mainly espionage historians

who know this, but the Yale English

Department was a hotbed of spies and

future spy masters from the 1930s

to the 50s. Among them William

F. Buckley Jr. and the most notori-

ous spy master in American history,

James Jesus Angleton.

But perhaps the most eff ective in-

telligence operative there was Nor-

man Holmes Pearson, a Le Carr-

esque prof who was a founder of the

wartime OSS and its successor, the

CIA. It was Pearson who recruited

Matthiessen into the Company in

1951, after his graduation, when Mat-

thiessen was living the expatriate

writers life in Paris.

My cover was writing a novel called

Race Rock, Matthiessen recalls. It

was Paris, the height of the espio-

nage world and everybodys coming

through, stolen passports, etc. But my

CIA superior in Paris said my cover as

a novelist was feeble, and at that time

I ran into a man called Doc Humes.

He was running something called the

Paris News Post and he signed me on

as ction editor. I thought if I could

go into an offi ce, that would be a little

bit better cover. But Doc was making

a mess of it; he had a mutiny on his

hands with that magazine. Id gotten a

short story from Terry Southern [the

brilliant comic satirist, later author

of The Magic Christian and the Dr.

Strangelove screenplay] and said Doc,

that story is kind of wasted on your

magazine, lets make our own mag-

azine, just ction for young writers.

After a while he just couldnt handle it

so thats when I remembered this guy

Id gone to [prep] school with in New

York, at St. Bernards, named George

Plimpton.

The rest is literary history. We had

Kerouac, he recalls. We had the rst

English story by Samuel Beckett.

They also had Philip Roth, Adrienne

Rich, Norman Mailerthe whole lot

of postwar literary eminences. The

magazine, which just celebrated its

60th anniversary, has been hailed for

decades for its waves of new talent

and extraordinary writers at work

interviews.

What did you actually do for the

CIA? I ask him.

You know, if I told you Id have to

be taken out and shot, he answers,

laughing. Mostly, he says, it was just

running errands and carrying mes-

sages and false passports between

agents in Paris.

I wanted to know because Id read

allegations about the Paris Review

being founded with CIA money as

part of soft power cold war cultural

outreach.

No, he says, the Paris Review was

not . . . This is a canard Ive always

been trying to settle.

He says the CIA involvement in the

origins of the Paris Review was more

an accident than the result of a delib-

erate cold war strategy.

In any case, Matthiessen says he

It was Paris, the height of the espionage world and e

smithsonian magazine 2014-05

Documents

year of retirement

new poem

f n f f f lpelice d

searching new novel

compatrick stewart

sir patrick stewart

auschwitzcaf future

future smithsonianmay