From ER to E.T.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ix
PREFACE xi
1 ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS 1
1.1 He(a)dy Stuff / 1
1.2 From Russia without English / 3
1.3 On the Shoulders of Giants / 5
1.4 Do-it-yourself Execution? / 8
1.5 Franklin: Did He or Didn't He? / 10
1.6 De Magnete ("On the Magnet") / 12
1.7 A Eureka Moment / 15
1.8 Auld Lang Syne / 17
1.9 As Singular as a Delta Function? / 19
1.10 Publish or Perish? / 21
DID YOU KNOW? 24
2 THE EARTH AND BEYOND 27
2.1 In the Eye of the Beholder / 27
2.2 Roses are Red, Violets are Blue... / 30
2.3 2003: An Earth Odyssey? / 32
2.4 Which Came First: Big Bang or Big Crunch? / 34
2.5 Whistling in the Dark? / 36
2.6 Going Beyond a Selfie / 38
DID YOU KNOW? 41
3 SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE (SETI) 45
3.1 Little Green Men: A Phantom Menace? / 45
3.2 Waiting for Godot? / 47
3.3 Is There Anybody There? / 49
3.4 Science or Science Fiction? / 51
DID YOU KNOW? 54
4 PROFESSIONALISM: ETHICS AND LAW 59
4.1 Did Maxwell Pull a Fast One? / 59
4.2 Cell Phones and Cancer: Anatomy of a Legal Opinion / 61
4.3 Happy 200th Anniversary! / 64
4.4 Einstein Doesn't Work Here Anymore / 66
4.5 It is a Bird. It is a Plane. It is... / 68
DID YOU KNOW? 71
5 HEALTH EFFECTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS 75
5.1 Say Au Revoir to Cell Phones? / 75
5.2 Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity / 78
5.3 From Bell Tower to Cell Tower / 80
5.4 Nocebo: Reading This Column may Affect Your Health / 83
5.5 Magnetic Pull: Biological Effects or Medical Applications? / 85
5.6 Close Encounters With Radiation of the Other Kind / 88
DID YOU KNOW? 91
6 BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS 95
6.1 How Many Biologists Does it Take to Fix a Radio? / 95
6.2 The Grand Challenges / 97
6.3 Biomedical Applications: Taking Stock / 99
6.4 Tugging at the Heartstrings / 101
6.5 A Jolt from the Blue? / 103
6.6 Channeling the Voice Within / 105
6.7 Battling Cancer: Microwave Hyperthermia / 107
DID YOU KNOW? 110
7 DEFENSE APPLICATIONS 113
7.1 Where is Waldo? / 113
7.2 Antimagnet / 115
7.3 Cutting to the Chase / 117
7.4 Twenty-First Century Warfare / 119
7.5 On a Wing and a Prayer / 121
7.6 ELF Communication: An Obituary / 122
7.7 Catching up with Professor Scarry / 124
7.8 Criminal Interference / 126
7.9 Wireless Networks: An Electronic Battlefield? / 130
DID YOU KNOW? 133
8 DOMESTIC AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS 137
8.1 Blowin' in the Wind / 137
8.2 Sharing the Road / 139
8.3 Rare no More? / 141
8.4 Local Heating? / 143
8.5 Coming Soon to a Wal-Mart Near You / 145
8.6 Has Your Cat Gone Phishing? / 148
8.7 The Future of Wireless Charging / 150
8.8 Electropollution or Sustainable Energy? / 151
DID YOU KNOW? 154
9 COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS 157
9.1 Small is Beautiful / 157
9.2 Gigabit Wi-Fi / 159
9.3 Open Spectrum: A Tragedy of the Commons? / 161
9.4 Near-Field Communication / 163
9.5 A New Digital Phone? / 165
9.6 Electronic Countermeasures / 167
DID YOU KNOW? 170
10 LIFELONG LEARNING 175
10.1 Back to Basics / 175
10.2 Preaching to the Choir? / 177
10.3 The Other Davos? / 180
10.4 Mirror, Mirror on the Wall; who is the Fairest of Them All? / 182
10.5 Equations Redux / 184
10.6 New Year's Resolutions Laws / 185
10.7 Through a Glass Darkly / 187
10.8 Stranger Than Fiction? / 189
10.9 High Frequency Education: What Do You Think? / 191
AFTERWORD 195
INDEX 197