United Academics Magazine Sept. 2011 by United Academics

THERE MUST BE SOME KIND OF WAY

OUT OF H RE

Can we escape death? DIY HOMESTEADING

BIO: HARRY HOUDINI

Credits Editor-in-Chief Anouk Vleugels Executive Editor Mark Fonseca Rendeiro Editorial Bendert Katier Daphne Wiersema Danielle Wiersema Design Michelle Halcomb Advertisement Send an e-mail to advertising @united-academics.org Questions and suggestions Send an e-mail to redactie @united-academics.org Address Warmoesstraat 149, 1012 JC Amsterdam Website www.united-academics.org

EDITORIAL MORGAN FREEMAN It seemed like such a good idea at the time. We had already picked this month’s theme ‘The Great Escape,’ wanting to do something with hard sciences for a change. Then there it was on Sciencedaily.com: ‘Escaping Gravity’s Clutches: Information Could Escape from Black Holes After All, Study Suggests’. It was perfect. Controversial, new, mysterious. There was just one problem: we knew nothing about black holes. Or quantum physics, for that matter. However, this didn’t stop us from pursuing our journalistic goals. So I asked my co-editor Mark to contact the two physicists who had published the study, and set up an interview. It started out fine. Some history, some Einstein. When the name ‘Hawking’ was mentioned, Mark even got a little excited. He knew Stephen Hawking! “Ooh, ‘Hawking radiation’, you say?” Mark wasn’t sure. And then it got more difficult; words like ‘entropy’ and ‘inertia’ entered the conversation. Followed by ‘black hole evaporation’ and ‘the thermodynamic properties of event horizons.’ Mark felt himself slipping away into a different kind of abyss, but there was nothing he could do. So he kept on recording their words, translated them to the best of his knowledge, and then sent me the first draft of his story to edit. Mark’s first question: What was the original idea of your research “Black Hole Evaporation Rates,” and what did you learn? Answer: “The basic idea was: let’s forget about black holes and instead just think about some quantum mechanical system and we’re just randomly sampling some subsystems from it, so its dimensionality slowly goes down and down.” I read it once. Twice. And six more times. But there was no way of denying it: I just didn’t understand this.

And then our designer recommended I watch Discovery Science’s Through the Wormhole. Desperate and confused, I went to the website. And there he was; the black prince of narration. The David Attenborough of science. Well-dressed, golden-voiced, soft-spoken- Morgan Freeman. He explained things to me in a way I could understand, as he always does on the silver screen. Entropy, he said, was just like putting cream in a cup of coffee; once the two were mixed, there was no way of getting the milk out again. It made sense. The universe, he continued, was like a New York bagel; not infinite, but formed in such a way that we would never reach its borders. Aha. With Morgan at my side, I finished editing Mark’s interview. Hopefully, it makes more sense to you than it did to me. And if not, rest assured we added a little quantum physics Dictionary for Dummies to the story. Just to be on the safe side. Anouk Vleugels, Editor-in-Chief

Informations Escape

BUILD YOUR OWN PARADISE DIY Homesteading

THE BLACK HOLE

Live forever or die trying

BIOGRAPHY: Harry Houdini

AUGMENTED REALITY Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more than meets the eye

Book & Review

Remarkable Research

THE BLACK HOLE INFORMATION ESCAPE 6

he concept of black holes in space has been around since the late 1700’s. It was only later in 1939 that the black hole was theoretically discovered by J. Robert Oppenheimer and Hartland Snyder, who were making use of calculations from Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. In 1970 the first physical black hole, Cygnus X-1, was identified. Even though his calculations predicted their existence, Einstein himself did not believe black holes existed. Still, his work and theory of general relativity was revolutionary, it explained gravity as equivalent to acceleration; motion effects time and space, as it should also effect gravity. But where Einstein left off was to confirm the existence of black holes, as well as the physics of this powerful phenomenon.

What was the original idea of your research, ‘Black Hole Evaporation Rates,’ and what came of it?

But before any of that, what is a black hole? According to NASA, a black hole is: “a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light can not get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space. This can happen when a star is dying.” Picking up where Einstein left off, through breakthroughs in different branches of physics and math, specialized technology for space observation, and the constant testing and retesting of theories, some of the unknowns about this vast unknown are on the verge of being unlocked.

MP: “There are few things that you can do with a black hole. To study something you often need to interact with it. To interact with a black hole is almost impossible since anything you send will get trapped there, according to the common wisdom. But, what Hawking shows, and we continue in that tradition, is that energy CAN come out. And you may be able to use this to study and gain more knowledge about black holes.”

Professor Sam Braunstein and Dr. Manas Patr,a at the University of York, UK, saw a chance to uncover another piece of the black hole paradox that so many of the world’s most powerful minds are trying to figure out. The possible implications of their discoveries so far have caused quite a stir. Among other reasons, their work helps support the theory that information can escape black holes, which may eventually help us understand more about gravity, picking up where Newton and Einstein left off.

SB: “One of the reasons you have these paradoxes is that there are lots of plausible arguments that people come up with which can leave you tied in knots. Our approach in many ways seems quite distinct from the conventional picture everyone had of how the evaporation process works.”

SB: “We were really looking just at the problem of information return from what many consider a “toy model” of black hole evaporation. We got so much resistance to that work that we decided to see whether that toy model could really make sensible predictions about a black hole’s spectrum. To our surprise it was right on the money.” MP: “Sam’s idea was that quantum information should apply to black holes as well as atoms, photons, and so on. Our work indicates that this may be true. Even if we are still far from a complete theory, this is a small step.” What is the most difficult aspect of studying black hole physics?

The black hole is often referred to as a paradox, why is it the subject of so many competing theories?

Theoretical Physicist Erik Verlinde’s work has been praised as picking up where Einstein (and Newton) left off regarding black hole information and gravity. What is significant about his work and how is your work connected to his?

“To interact with a black hole is almost impossible since anything you send will get trapped there, according to the common wisdom.”

Samuel Braunstein was awarded a BSc (Honors) and MSc in Physics from the University of Melbourne and received his PhD in Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1988. He is editor of three books "Quantum Computing," "Scalable Quantum Computing" and "Quantum Information with Continuous Variables" and serves on the editorial board of the journal Fortschritte der Physik for which he has prepared two special issues on quantum computation. He is the Founder and Managing Editor of Quantum Information and Computation -- the first journal dedicated specifically to this field.

SB: “Verlinde and others have been looking at something interesting about gravity; they point to Ted Jacobsen who had an article that he published in 1995, which shows something really remarkable. If we take the change in entropy of a system (as heat flux divided by the temperature) if you apply that simple thermodynamic relation to all possible event horizons, you end up reproducing the full structure of the Einstein equations of gravity. This eventually led to the suggestion that gravity, spacetime and inertia, might be emergent from an underlying thermodynamic theory. This reasoning might allow you to understand why things have mass and where gravitational attraction comes from. According to Verlinde both these things come from the thermodynamic properties across horizons. However, traditionally, these thermodynamic properties of horizons are derived from the full properties of curved space-time and gravity. So Verlinde’s ideas might just be interpreted as a logical consistency and no more. Our work shows that you can break that mutual implication, since the thermal properties of event horizons do not need space or time or any of the usual stuff from general relativity.” We often say that in hard sciences there are more definite answers compared to, say, the humanities. But it seems with the work you’re doing related to black hole physics there are a lot of disagreements and versions of answers. SB: “In science we have a lot of these in between areas where we don’t necessarily have explicit calculations, and we rely on a sort of folklore. This

folklore can be quite old with origins and logic behind it that are lost, and it isn’t always right. Bit by bit we uncover that in fact you can do things that you might have thought were impossible. Like being able to image things significantly smaller than a wavelength, a feat which used to be considered impossible.”

“In science we have a lot of these in between areas where we don’t necessarily have explicit calculations, and we rely on a sort of folklore.”

How close are we to having one undisputed theory? MP: “It is very hard to get out of a 300-400 year belief system. Since the days of Newton we believe that gravity is the most universal and fundamental force. Unless we have a complete and consistent theory which would recreate the work of Einstein and Newton, only then can we convince the larger community that this is the new thing. Gravity has been around since Newton’s time, 300 years. Quantum theory is about 100 years or less. Until we’ve combined quantum theory and gravity, a unified approach, which may or may not be possible, I think it’s still a long road. What we think is that quantum information should play a role in any kind of unifying theory.” BY MARK FONSECA RENDEIRO

Manas Patra did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the University of Delhi (St. Stephen’s College). His PhD work in the physics department of the University was in mathematical physics. Since 2008 he has been with the Department of Computer Science, University of York. Dr. Patra has published papers in physics, mathematical physics and computer science. He has a wide range of interests in physics, computer science and mathematics. His research interests include quantum information science, quantum computing, quantum optics, logic and complexity, quantum foundations, black hole physics, classical and quantum gravity and algebraic quantum theory. 9

GENERAL RELATIVITY The theory of gravitation, developed by Einstein, says that the observed gravitational attraction between masses results from their warping of space and time. EVENT HORIZON In general relativity, an event horizon the boundary in spacetime beyond which events cannot affect an outside observer. In layman’s terms it is defined as “the point of no return” i.e. the point at which the gravitational pull becomes so great as to make escape impossible. HEAT FLUX The rate of heat energy transfer through a given surface. HAWKING RADIATION Hawking radiation is a thermal radiation with a black body spectrum predicted to be emitted by black holes due to quantum effects. BLACK HOLE EVAPORATION The Hawking radiation process reduces the mass and the energy of the black hole. This phenomenon is known as black hole evaporation. INERTIA The idea that an object keeps moving unless acted upon by an outside force. ENTROPY The idea that nature tends to move from order to disorder in isolated systems.

DO IT YOURSELF

HOMESTEADING

ou may may be wondering about the ongoing global economic collapse and the unemployment, frustration, and the big question of “How am I going to make it?” that comes along with it. Or perhaps you’ve got the high profile job and you’re paying for the tiny high profile apartment and you’re starting to realize this isn’t the life you wanted after all. Whatever the inspiration, you might soon join a growing group of people who over the past decade have been busy moving into forgotten places, building their own houses, producing their own food, generating their own energy, and making their own jobs. DoItYourself homesteaders are on the march and they are championing creative and sustainable practices that could prove to be just what many of us have been lacking in our lives. 12

You may be wonder how it could possibly happen, from the idea to the actual radical life changing move. Going from city person to DIY homesteader takes time, in fact, it can be a bit of a process. The first phase in this process which propels young couples (having company seems to make the process more appealing) is when you reach the point that your urban or suburban life is barely affordable and simply does not resemble anything of who you are and how you want to live. It is also at this stage that you grow tired of circumstances that do not allow you to do or make things for yourself. Whatever the combination of factors, it is here where the decision is made to escape the conventional path and set off to create a life that is closer to the life which you always wanted. Where to go then, to create your own space that does not require piles of money? ne Hodson and Jay Dedman moved from New York City, to San Francisco, and eventually looked to a rural town along the Shenandoah river, in Western Virginia, where Jay’s family has some history. A place where most people are in their golden years and their children have left farm life for the allure of the big city – Washington, DC. As Jay explains it, “In America, if you’re outside of an urban area, there’s nothing out here. It’s a social desert. And if you’re willing to put up with a little bit of isolation and maybe not so great coffee shops, you can get land and homes, really really cheap.” Jay and Ryannene don’t have the same amount of friends they had as young video production professionals living in San Francisco or New York City, but the pair have a knack for keeping busy and challenging themselves, whether it is through making something they’ve never made before, participating in local community projects, or taking a work trip to a foreign country. When the story of today’s DIY homesteaders is told there will always be comparisons to the hippies of the 60’s and 70’s who moved to remote areas to live collectively, to be more in tune with the earth. Few, if any of these communities lasted, so the same will be assumed about what looks like the next wave of people dropping out of society. But Ryannene is

fully aware of those who have tried to do similar and failed,“The difference between them and us is – the internet,” she explains, “I still feel very connected to the world and my friends thanks to the internet. I want to be able to skype with people and do my job as a video editor online, even from out here.” A very important aspect to homesteading is of course the house or whatever structure you choose to build or renovate that will become your home. Unlike suburban homesteaders who might use the term “build our own house”, the DIY folks mean this quite literally. With help from sources like the aforementioned internet as well as friends or neighbors, they often learn as they go, building a house for the first time, step-by-step. Wendy Tremayn and Mikey Sklaar moved from New York City to an old RV park in New Mexico, where the only structure on their one acre was an old trailer. “We came out here, I had never done dry wall or tile work, we hired a local guy and he showed us how to use the tools and we went and got the same tools and then just did the rest ourselves,” Mikey explains. The two have since added structures for different functions and even created their own building material made of recycled material – papercrete. They go to great lengths to build using materials and designs that take into account and make sense for the hot-dry climate of the American South West. In an era where energy independence is such a political catch phrase, this motivated group of people have been doing their best to live the dream. Cars that run on vegetable oil or electricity, solar power systems, geothermic water heating, rain water collectors, and even good old fashioned fire wood are among the methods incorporated into some DIY homes. The practice is by no means completely successful, for example, your region might be hit by a drought, nullifying your rain water system or water well. But part of the adventure is to keep tinkering with your setup, trying to find better and sustainable solutions for everyday life.

As one might expect, moving to places with more open space and unspoiled land means the option to grow food. In fact, a significant amount of the DIY homestead’s food intake, as much as 50%, is home grown or produced. This includes a wide range of fruits and vegetables, and everything you can imagine deriving from them. At Holy Scap Hot Springs in New Mexico, Mikey and Wendy make their own wine, fruit drinks, tempe, and honey, just to name a few. In rural Virginia Ryanne and Jay have even joined the local bee keeping club which got them started with their own colony that now produces an impressive amount of honey each year.

COSTS OF LIVING When the conversation gets to the question of money, Jay lays out a basic truth about homesteading: “The central idea here is being a scavenger. We live in a society with such abundance that if you have just a little bit of time, you can live really cheap and really well.” Indeed using traditional as well as modern tools, like thrift stores, Craig’s List, and even Freecycle, you can tap into this world of abundance and find whatever it is that you need in exchange for very little, if not (in the case of the online give-away-stuff tool Freecycle) – free. Yet even DIY homesteading can have its initial costs. Although land and supplies might be affordable, initial investments in infrastructure, like building a new foundation for a house, can be very 14

costly at first. Erik Nelson, who played professional basketball in the Netherlands for several years, used his offseason over the course of 3 years, to build his home on a mountain known as Camel’s Hump in Vermont. “I spent a summer clearing the land, burying power lines to the house site. Then I went back to the Netherlands and played another season, eventually breaking ground the next summer,” he recalls, “After improving the land, I was running out of money, so it was a fortunate thing to have a job where I could still be paid during those summer months working on the house.” Like many of his fellow homesteaders around North America, Erik had never before built his own house, but learned along the way. His wooden frame house has a simple, traditional design, with an interior filled with unique attributes, which meet the needs and wishes of he, his wife, and their 4 children. When asked about what their greatest cost is, across the board telecommunication remains the most significant bills these trail blazers face. The need for internet at home, for work, reference, communication, and more, means quality internet is a must. Unfortunately, especially for those further away from urban or suburban hubs, good connectivity can be costly. The United States is, after all, world famous for its poor national broadband access, and those who live in forgotten places feel it most. WORK LIFE Without access to the internet this new generation seeking to build their own lives in their own way would not be able to have the income they need while doing work they enjoy. In fact it is the knowledge that they can have good internet access while living in these somewhat off-the-grid places that appeals to them in the first place. So while working from home is not an uncommon situation for people in cities, the appeal here is the combination of working from home while also being able to work on all your other DIY projects in and around the house.

administrative vacancy. Longtime community members are often pleased to see young faces, especially when they’re interested in old traditions as well as new ideas. City dwellers and those fond of their concert halls, clubs, theaters, and museums will surely scoff at the idea of escaping their world of culture. Sure you can grow your food and have space to do things, but you’ll lose the sights and sounds that the remote places don’t offer. Erik Nelson has found that this isn’t the whole story, “It’s a different version of culture,” he explains, “For example, I have neighbors that play live bluegrass in local cafés. And every other week there is a potluck dinner, so you get to know everyone on this mountaintop.” For those who don’t have music or a local café, there is always your broadband connection, a constant gateway to culture and entertainment. THE FUTURE IS NOW

MEET THE NEIGHBORS As they move into communities where they are far below the average age and have a limited or nonexistent history there, creative homesteaders attract a good amount of attention. In the town of Truth and Consequences, New Mexico, Mikey and Wendy say their neighbors are very interested in their projects and even come back when their have some of their own knowledge to share. “Fundamentally all the issues we’re confronting in our own exploration of how to live independently are issues that everybody reckons with. Plus we are transparent about and share everything we do ,” Wendy explains, “so people feel welcome to come see what we’re doing, share information and ask questions.” It can even get to the point that local governing bodies try to recruit their new young neighbors to run for office or fill a volunteer

The ideas described here which make up some of the characteristics of a DIY homesteader will probably still written off as crazy or undesirable. Most people will keep their nose to the grindstone, even with the rapidly plummeting value of our currencies, our dwindling income, and our bloated cost of living. Though millions suffer from emotional or mental sickness, some of it brought on by the environment and high stress careers, they will still insist there is no alternative. So for the time being, even a long list of benefits and a growing population of inspiring successful makers, is probably not enough to change the preconceived notions of how life works. Still, the world of predatory lending, don’tstop-shopping, and instant cuisine is approaching a breaking point, and a fresh approach to the old idea of getting back to nature and finding our true selves might be just what we needed. BY MARK FONSECA RENDEIRO

LIVE FOREVER OR DIE TRYING MOST PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO LIVE FOREVERTHEY JUST DON’T LIKE THE IDEA OF DYING. THANKS TO MODERN TECHNOLOGY AND ADVANCED SCIENCE, IN THE FUTURE WE MAY NOT HAVE TO. 17

BIOGERONTOLOGY Judging from the field of biology, escaping death altogether is just not possible. Drastically extending the human lifespan, on the other hand, is closer than one might expect. By knocking out two genes, the lifespan of mice has already been doubled. Within a few decades, this might be possible for humans too. NO UPPER LIMIT Gerontologist Valter Longo is looking for ways to extend our lifespan. Thanks to his research, common yeast fungus (used to make bread and beer) is now able to live ten weeks . A small step for man, but a giant leap for yeast – its normal lifespan is six to seven days. If the same could be applied to humans, we would be able to live for about 800 years. The yeast’s longevity occurred with the removal of two genes from its DNA, RAS2 and SCH9, which promote ageing in yeast and cancer in humans. In addition, a calorie-restricted diet was applied to the yeast. The reason for this is that calorie-restriction decreases the activity of pathways involving insulinlike growth factor (IGF-1), glucose and TOR (target of rapamycin), which increases an organism’s lifespan. Although interesting, the lifespan of yeast is not directly relevant to human ageing and longevity. Therefore Longo and his colleagues decided to take their research one step further: they found a way to knock out the two genes in mice. As a result, the mice life expectancy was doubled. Since a mouse’s genome is 99% the same as that of a human, this result seems promising. We won’t be around to meet the first 800-year old person, 18

unfortunately. “We’re very, very far from making a person live to 800 years of age,” Longo says, “I don’t think it’s going to be very complicated to get to 120 and remain healthy, but at a certain point I think it will be possible to get people to live to 800. I don’t think there is an upper limit to the life of any organism.” REJUVENATION Audrey de Grey is also specialised in gerontology, but is looking for other ways to battle the process of ageing. The technologistturned-biologist believes getting old to be a disease; and a curable one at that. So how do we define aging? It’s quite simple: ageing is the lifelong process that gives rise to debilitation in old age. To put it in other words: there is a set of damage, types of molecular and cellular change in the body, that accumulate throughout life as intrinsic, unavoidable side effects of normal essential metabolic processes, like breathing for instance. “Most people think of ageing as the right thing to die off,” De Grey explains, “but actually, this supposed distinction between ageing on the one hand, and the diseases of old age on the other hand, is a false distinction. The only reason why diseases of old age are in fact diseases of old age, is because they’re the last stages of processes that go on throughout our whole life.” These are the processes De Grey would like to stop, or even better, reverse. In order to do so, he co-founded SENS Foundation, an organisation which works to develop, promote and ensure widespread access to rejuvenation biotechnologies which comprehensively address the disabilities and diseases of ageing. “Most of our people are researchers,” De Grey says, “they work in the laboratory, developing the technologies that we will put together to make comprehensive rejuvena-

tion possible. In the first instance, hopefully in the next six to eight years, we will be able to do this in mice. What I mean by ‘do this’, is that we will take middle-aged mice, in whom nothing has been done before, and ‘repair’ them with the help of stem cell therapies, gene therapies, and vaccines. This way we will fix all of the various types of damage that accumulate during ageing. The purpose of this is to extend their healthy lifespan. Once we’ve done this, it’s only a matter of time before we can do this to humans.” This, however, does not mean that De Grey is ‘a merchant of immortality,’ as he is often dubbed. “I’m not god- I’m a practical guy. I’m working to stop people from getting sick, however old they get. Maybe people will live a long time as a result, but that would just be a side effect, not the goal in itself.”

THEORETICAL PHYSICS Theoretical physics has never shunned away from the seemingly impossible. To live forever, therefore, is a plausible scenario until the opposite has been proven. By escaping through a wormhole into another dimension, for example, we could reverse time – and cheat death. WORMHOLE ESCAPE One of the iron laws of physics is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says that everything most move from order to disorder; never the other way around. This principle is called entropy. For example, burning an old chair turns a functional and ‘ordered’ piece of matter into a chaotic and disordered cloud of ash and smoke. It’s straightforward to accelerate entropy by burning the chair, but it 19

is (currently) impossible to reassemble the chair from the resultant ash and smoke. The atoms of which we are made of too have to obey the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This causes us to age, and eventually, die. Theoretical physicist and author of Physics of the Future Michio Kaku believes there might be a way out of this- escaping through a wormhole: “Perhaps civilisations billions of years ahead of ours will harness enough energy to punch a hole in space and escape, in a hyper-dimensional space ark, to a new universe. Calculations show that these gigantic machines must be the size of star systems. Unfortunately, other calculations show that a wormhole might only be microscopic in size. If so, an advanced civilisation might resort to shooting molecular-sized robots, called “nanobots”, through the wormhole. These could carry the entire genetic database of the human race. Once on the other side, these nanobots would then create huge DNA factories to grow clones of their creators. Although the physical bodies of these individuals will have died, their genetic twins will live on.” NANOBOTS TO THE RESCUE Nanobots might not only be useful in the distant future, but also within a few decades. It is anticipated that they could be equipped with all sorts of tools and cameras in order to furnish more extensive information about the human body. And it doesn’t stop there. Researchers expect that someday refined nanobots will be developed, that are designed to the point where they can be remotely controlled in order to perform millions of useful tasks. Among these is the ability to float neutrally through your bloodstream, identifying problem areas of your body and fixing them. Furthermore, nanobots could be used to clear the built-up cholesterol from your arteries, thereby saving you from a heart attack. If

the heart itself is damaged, they work their way up to the affected area and perform micro-surgery that you would probably not feel or notice. And most importantly, nanorobots’ ability to interact with materials in their most basic form may enable them to effectively rebuild or “regrow” damaged tissue. Kaku too believes that certain medical developments of the future will enable us to drastically extend our lifespan. “In the future, all of us will have a CD-ROM with all of our genes on it,” he says. “It’ll cost about a hundred dollars. We’ll be able to scan the genes of old people by the millions, scan the genes of young people by the millions, and subtract. And when you subtract the genes of old people from young people, bingo, you have the genes that control the ageing process. We’ve already found 60 genes that control human ageing. So it’s conceivable now that maybe our grandkids will have the ability to reach the age of 30, and then they’ll simply stop. They’ll simply decide that, “Hey, I like being 30,” and they’ll cruise at age 30 for several decades.”

NEUROLOGY The human brain is one of the most complex systems in the universe. Figuring out how we get from cells and wires to thoughts and memories, is one of the greatest challenges known to science. Being able to crack the code might enable us to digitize our brains. That way, we could live forever inside a machine. WE ARE OUR BRAINS Neuroscientist Olaf Sporns, who works at Indiana University, has been studying the brain for quite some time. Sporns’ goal is to chart every single neurone and synapse, and create a complete map of the brain; ‘the connectome’. It’s a comprehensive set of connections that will allow us, for the first time, to understand in more detail how brain regions are connected to each other. Sporns is 21

creating the connectome using a new technique called ‘diffusing imaging.’ It reveals the brain’s long distance connections by tracking water molecules along the neurological highways. What emerges is a detailed map of the central core of brain cells’ connections. Is this the area where awareness and consciousness, everything that makes us who we are, resides? “As we’ve been discovering recently, some brain regions are more connected than others,” says Sporns. “Some are more essential for the functioning of the brain as a whole. Those regions we call hubs. By their nature, hubs are focal points of information traffic. Information converges on these regions, and it is that ebb and flow of information and the magnitude of that flow, that really sets these hubs apart from other regions of the brain.” Finding that one part of the brain in which our ‘self’ is located is one of the most important quests of neuroscience. According to Sporns, the key might be the so-called precuneus, a region located in the medial area of the superior parietal cortex. “This area is very highly active in many cognitive tasks or mental states that involve self-reflection, thinking about the past and the future, retrieving memories,” Sporns explains. “It’s sort of part of a network that kicks into high gear when we’re not engaged in anything cognitively demanding in the outside world. It is part of a network that perhaps relates to ‘self’ processes.” MIND UPLOADING So suppose Sporns is right and our ‘self’ really is nothing more than a bunch of neurones and connections. How does that make us immortal? To achieve that goal, we would have to be able to copy our brain to a machine; also known as ‘mind 22

uploading’. This hypothetical process requires the transferring of a conscious mind to a computer, by scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a system. The computer would have to run a simulation model so faithful to the original, that it would behave in exactly the same way as the biological brain. To put it in other words: you would become a machine. And if the processes of the mind can be separated from the body, they are no longer tied to the limits and lifespan of that body. The idea isn’t new. In 1971, biogerontologist George Martin already outlined a hypothetical proposal for achieving ‘immortality’ through a process we now describe as mind uploading: “The ultimate solution [for immortality] is pure science fiction. […] We shall assume that developments in neurobiology, bioengineering and related disciplines… will ultimately provide suitable techniques of ‘read-out’ of the stored information from cryobiologically preserved brains into nth generation computers capable of vastly outdoing the dynamic patterning of operation of our cerebral neurones.” Olaf Sporns, however, is not sure mind uploading will grab the essence of life. “Just imagine all the things that happen in the real world, for example during a conversation. It includes hand gestures, speech sounds; our brains interact in an embodied manner. That could not happen in a computer. Yet, it is somehow the essence of what life’s all about. So I’m sceptical.” Sporns’ scepticism is understandable. If we could reach a state of digital immortality, does this mean ‘we’ are still living? And isn’t the whole concept of living defined by the inevitability of dying? Whether we extend our lifespan by altering our DNA, getting rejuvenation therapy or by crawling through a wormhole, none of these options are available yet. In the mean time, we still have some time to decide whether it’s desirable to live forever. And that too, is what makes us human. BY ANOUK VLEUGELS

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he great Harry Houdini, world-renowned magician and escape artist, is still inspiring magicians to this day. As a showman he understood the importance of drama and timing, as a master of his trade he knew all the tricks in the book. Magic, according to Houdini, was a worldly pursuit, improved by skill and training. It might be dazzling, confusing even, but it has nothing to do with mysticism. And everyone who claimed otherwise, could expect his fierce resistance. C A R D S A N D CO I N S Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary in 1874. At the age of four his family immigrated to the United States and settled down in Wisconsin. Young Erik, going by his American nickname Harry, grew up a curious and inventive boy. Fascinated by bolts and locks, he practiced with a little hook of piano wire with which he could spring the mechanism of any lock. Traveling circuses that would come to town with magicians, snake people and trapeze artists also caught Harry’s imagination. He begged his mother to knit him a red leotard and at nine years old, he made his debut as ‘Erich, the Prince of the Air’, walking a tight rope. Later he would become quite the sportsman, excelling in gymnastics, athletics and boxing. As a teenager Harry dreamed of becoming a famous magician, but because of slender means his repertoire only existed of tricks with cards and coins. In 1893 Harry started performing tricks with his brother Dash as ‘The Houdini Brothers’ at circuses and dime shows. At the Coney Island fairground he met his wife, fellow performer Bess Rahner, who soon replaced Dash and would be his stage assistant for the rest of his career. The advice of artist manager Martin Beck to forget the corny card tricks and focus on his escape acts helped Houdini finally flourish as a performer. Beck booked him on the top Vaudeville venues and organized a tour through Europe. To impress the managers of theaters and attract press, Houdini would march into local police headquarters to escape from

their handcuffs and jails, once even escaping from a Siberian prison transport in Moscow. Upon returning to the United States he had made a name for himself and he continued to perform with handcuffs, ropes and straitjackets. But as often is the case, other performers imitated his success and he had to come up with a new act to thrill his audiences. He realized that to set himself apart, he would have to introduce an element of real danger into his acts: he would have to escape death. He began escaping from locked crates, which would be buried or lowered into water, or from straitjackets while dangling from a tall building or crane. In 1912 he introduced his most famous act: the Chinese Water Torture Cell. Hanging upside down from his shackled feet in a tank filled with water, Houdini would have to free himself before drowning. Once the curtain dropped, he would bend and twist limbs, flex fingers and toes, regurgitate a swallowed hook to pick the lock, all the while controlling not only his breathing but also the most dangerous element of the act: mortal panic. I T TA K E S O N E , T O K N OW O N E Houdini knew every trick in the book. Therefore, whom better than Houdini to expose frauds? He started writing books in which he debunked criminals (‘The Right Way to Do Wrong: An Exposé of Successful Criminals, 1906), his revered precursor (‘The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin’, 1908) and his colleagues (Miracle Mongers and their Methods: an Exposé by Harry Houdini’, 1920). Finally, he turned his attention to the popular philosophy of Spiritism or Spiritualism. Spiritism is based on the assumption that man’s soul or spirit is eternal. The spirit evolves through reincarnation, developing it’s full potential in a series of human lives. Followers believe that the spiritual realm is omnipresent and communication between the spiritual and material world is possible. Mediums, who are more sensitive to the spiritual world, are capable of communication through listening, seeing or automatic writing. First originating in the 19th century, the fascination for Spiritism was still widespread in Europe and America in the 20th century. After the First World 25

War, many families had lost loved ones and were desperate to receive a message from beyond. Meanwhile, numerous self-proclaimed mediums gained fame and considerable fortune through séances. However, there was no scientific proof that this spiritual world existed. Houdini, who some years before lost his beloved mother, wasn’t only curious about these supernatural phenomena. He also had a professional interest in the workings of mediumship, having performed fake séances with Bess as part of his act for years. As a showman he had intricate knowledge of setting the stage, building expectations and dramatic timing. As a magician he knew how to create illusions, once even vanishing a full-grown elephant off the stage. He started attending séances in search of proof that the spiritual world existed, desperately hoping for a sign from his mother. THE SKEPTIC AND THE BELIEVER Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his creation of Sherlock Holmes, the detective who relies fully on logic and reason. Being a physician, Doyle himself was well trained in deduction and forensic science. But rational as he might be, Doyle had lost many friends and family to illness and in the Great War. Consequently, he developed an almost religious belief in Spiritism. Houdini met Doyle on one of his tours in England and the two men immediately struck up a warm friendship. Doyle was delighted to have found in Houdini a man who, although skeptic, had an open mind and with whom he could banter about his favorite subject. He was convinced that Houdini was a powerful medium, how else could he perform his amazing stunts if not for his paranormal abilities? Mildly amused, Houdini tried ineffectively to convince Doyle that this was not the case. For his part, he welcomed the many introductions to séances that Doyle arranged for him, using the experiences as research for his new book. As a conjurer, he quickly saw through every scam and his disappointment in Spiritism grew. Not uncommon in history, the cause of the rift in 26

their friendship is a woman. Lady Doyle, a gifted medium according to her own husband, insisted that she had an important message for Houdini. She went into a trance and, through automatic writing, channeled Houdini’s mother. Houdini was not convinced that the message from his mother was authentic, the letter lacking important clues. Furthermore, the knowledge that Lady Doyle had questioned Bess about his mother the evening before the séance must have disappointed him all the more. He was too polite to mention any of this to his friends at the time. But almost four months after the séance, an article was published in which Houdini stated that in his 25 years of research he had never found convincing proof of a spiritual world existing. Doyle was enraged, his wife’s integrity had been questioned, although there was no mention of her in the article. He also felt embarrassed as he had been boasting that Houdini had finally been won over and now was ‘a believer’ like himself. The press had a field day, asking Houdini and Doyle to comment on the other man’s opinions and thus making it virtually impossible for the two men to maintain their friendship. The final blow came when Houdini published his findings in ‘A Magician Among the Spirits’ (1924). T H E F I N A L C U R TA I N Chapter nine of ‘A Magician Among the Spirits’ is entirely devoted to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In it, Houdini describes their friendship in the most respectful terms “…it is impossible not to respect the belief of this great author who has wholeheartedly and unflinchingly thrown his life and soul into the conversion of unbelievers. Sir Arthur believes. In his great mind there is no doubt.” Houdini continues to describe how Doyle is blinded by his belief in mediums and his regret at their falling out. After publication of the book, the two

“Magic is the sole science not accepted by scientists, because they can’t understand it.” -Harry Houdini 27

men never spoke again. Houdini died at the age of 52 from a ruptured appendix. In keeping with their agreement, Bess held yearly séances on Halloween in the hope of Houdini’s spirit appearing and passing on a secret codeword so that she would find some peace. After ten years of unsuccessful séances, she put out the candle that burned besides a photograph of her husband, saying that “Ten years is long enough to wait for any man.” To this day, the Society of American Magicians holds yearly séances, but Houdini’s spirit has not been able to come through and prove himself wrong.

Daniëlle Wiersema has a propaedeutic diploma in English and a master degree in communication science at the University of Amsterdam and has taken courses in journalism and in writing short stories at the Schrijversvakschool. Initially starting out in advertising she is currently working as a marketing manager at a magazine publishing house. As a freelance writer she finds the topics closest to her heart are history, literature, biographies and memoires, art and photography, whilst nursing a persistent addiction to Vanity Fair’s high end gossip.

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AUGMENTED REALITY

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”,

British Science fiction author Arthur C. Clark once famously said, and when done right augmented reality can achieve just that. Words and objects can be seemingly conjured out of thin air, while overlapping and interacting with the reality that is recognized by a portable device’s camera or GPS-system.

ugmented reality enables you to represent parts of the digital world on top of the physical world. Take Junaio’s augmented reality browser for smart phones for example, this application enables you to scan a painting to receive information about the artist; a product barcode to get a 3D user manual; or a food item to try a new recipe for a good meal. Images that can be matched with those in Junaio’s database will get a sophisticated augmented reality experience in response. Although this might seem like a novelty, visualizing some sort of data based on a sensory input is not exactly new. We all use web services such as Google Maps or Google Translate to convert data into a desired output. It’s because of this that users of mobile devices have a hard time figuring out

what the exact added value of augmented reality applications is. Previous research on augmented reality mostly focused on the technical perspective, failing to describe in which way those functionalities could actually be used in order to provide more value over the ‘traditional’ web services we have today. If augmented reality browsers want to become mainstream in consumer markets, it is exactly that question that developers should ask themselves. In which way can mobile augmented reality be used in order to provide added value over existing web services?

History of Augmented Reality Even though augmented reality didn’t start ‘buzzing’ in consumer markets until recent years, the concept has been around since the late 60’s. During those years, augmented reality’s basic principals were first applied in the heads-up displays inside jet fighters, on which computer generated graphics were added to the windshield to enrich the pilot’s view. It was also in the late 60’s that researchers started to describe how and where people interacted with technology. The term ‘augmented reality,’ however, was not coined until the early 90’s, when airplane manufacturer Boeing started using augmented reality goggles to assist engineers in the airplane assembling process. Finally, in 1997, technologist Ronald Azuma defined augmented reality as it is known today, by stating that augmented reality should be a technology that mixes virtual stimuli with real ones. Furthermore, he argued that these stimuli can be multifaceted (vision, sound or touch), interactive in real time and registered in 3D. In recent years, we have seen augmented reality being introduced primarily for the visualization of both virtual data and real environments all together in a variety of sectors, most recently in consumer markets, notably through smart-phone applications.

Mobile Augmented Reality Browsers Although different forms of augmented reality exist, this study focused specifically on mobile (in contrast to stationary) augmented reality devices because of its potential added value. Since an augmented reality application should enable users to interact with something in their direct environment at any time and place, it would be logical to do so through a device than they can carry with them; mobile devices. Moreover, augmented reality browsers were chosen for this study because of their versatile use of augmented reality content, which can be based either on location data or a visual input. 32

“Mechanical car manuals are usually very complicated for the average user because they do not understand the inner workings of a car. You could deliver the same content in augmented reality by recognizing the engine and highlighting the car and explaining where the user needs to fill up the water or oil. The same could be done for explaining how to change the printer cartridge for example”. -Noora Guldemond, European Head of Sales for Metaio

Based on several face-to-face interviews with experts within the augmented reality sector, and a short questionnaire for which participants were contacted through Twitter, relevant data was collected. It was found that the different forms of augmented reality could provide value in several ways.

Location Based Augmented Reality Location based augmented reality, where information is linked to a location and recognized by using your phone’s GPS-system, can be compared to online reviews in which people share opinions and facts about a certain place or venue. However, placing this information ‘on’ the actual location makes much more sense than placing it on a blog, since it’s an easier and faster way to get to the needed information. For companies this could be very useful, as these locations could serve as digital storefronts and a way for location-based advertising. A shopping mall in Almere for example, used augmented reality storefronts to show of their latest discounts. Location-based advertising enables customers to efficiently look for information concerning a product while being at a certain place. This way, they can check, for example, if a certain product is available in a store nearby, or which store in the area offers this product at the lowest price.

Vision based augmented reality There is also augmented reality based on image recognition, for which a visual input needs to be scanned by your phone’s camera. After the input has been matched with an image in an online database, augmented reality gets projected on top of the image. The advantage over location based augmented reality is that this form can be interactive, i.e. the augmented reality projection can change based on the image that is perceived through the device. According to experts, consumers might soon find themselves using this form of augmented reality to, for example, project a manual on top of the device they’re trying to use. “Mechanical car manuals are usually very complicated for the aver33

age user,” explains Noora Guldemond, European Head of Sales for Metaio, “because they do not understand the inner workings of a car.” “You could deliver the same content in augmented reality by recognizing the engine and highlighting the car and explaining where the user needs to fill up the water or oil. The same could be done for explaining how to change the printer cartridge for example”. Following the examples above, it seems that augmented reality browsers “enable people to look for content, information and connect to each other.” In that sense we can conclude that augmented reality should not be considered a goal in itself, but as “a means of visualizing data.” Therefore, developers should consider augmented reality applications to be tools, used so that they are valuable and desirable from a user perspective by visualizing data in ways that current online stationary services lack, i.e., by projecting them onto and in reaction to everyday objects. When used correctly, augmented reality applications should “add value given the context”, “fix consumer pains” and “solve consumer problems”. A way of doing so, as shown by the examples above, is making everyday processes run more efficiently, by helping the consumer save time or money. Although the augmented reality market still isn’t standardized yet, one of the things experts expect for augmented reality functionalities is that they will be integrated into current mobile browsers, so they can serve as an extension to web-based services. That way when data has more value coming from interaction with the context of a user, the augmented reality view could be enabled in favor of the web-based view. Searching data will become a lot more intuitive with augmented reality, to such a point you won’t have to explain how it (augmented reality) works, just as you don’t have to explain how a web browser works. In the near future people will be browsing online content, based on information that is coming from their context. The context could include the place where a service is enabled, the 34

friends you are with, your mental state, or the environment you are in. All to make the activity you are doing at that point more efficient. Augmented reality will help bridge the gap between cyberspace and everyday routines in the real world and we will be left wondering how we lived without it all these years. Read full thesis here . BY BENDERT KATIER

CALL FOR ARTICLES BIOGRAPHIES & BOOK REVIEWS January 2012: ‘Integration, Assimilation and Cooperation’

UAJSS is a refereed online journal which publishes new research by postgraduate and post-doctoral academics. Deadline: 5th of January 2012 See our journal for submission guidelines Email: elke.weesjes@ unitedacademics.org

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REMARKABLERESEARCH TECHNOLOGY

SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYED CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE OCCURRENCE OF THE ARAB SPRING The researchers, led by associate professor in communication Philip Howard, analyzed over 3 million tweets, blog posts, YouTube material and posts on Facebook. The focus was mainly on Tunisia and Egypt. Social media spread the word about democracy and freedom and helped people to believe in their chances of success. An example is the story of Mohammed Bouazizi, a young vegetable merchant who set himself on fire in front of a municipal building in Tunisia to protest against the government in December 2010. The story of Mohammed Bouazizi was told and re-told on social media and inspired others to join the protest and join forces. Ideas about democracy and freedom were shared mainly by young, urban, relatively well educated individuals, many of whom were women. Besides sharing their ideas, they also used social media to broadcast embarrassing videos about their government. An example is a video of President Ben Aliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife using a government jet to make expensive shopping trips to Europe. Furthermore, information from western news sites such as CNN and BBC was often used as opposed to more local news sites. A second interesting finding is that a spike in online conversations about the revolution often preceded major events on the ground, such as mass protest. 36

This finding suggests a direct link between social media and the Arab Spring. Government o f f i c i a l s recognized the amazing powers of social media and tried to block them. For instance, in Tunisia bloggers were arrested and attempts were made to block Facebook. However, with the help of talented computer programmers, some bloggers were able to keep their blogs online or, as was the case for the Muslim Brotherhood, their servers were located in London and could not be shut down. The dissidents also connected with people outside their countries to share ideas about democracy and freedom. In that way, they helped to inform Western news agencies about the events taking place. Furthermore, by connecting with others outside their own countries, they inspired more people to take on their government, fighting for freedom. Download the full report here.

HEALTH BEING BROUGHT UP POOR LEADS TO POORER HEALTH OUTCOMES IN ADULTHOOD Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a well-known problem: children who were brought up in poor families have more health problems later in life. Health problems include high blood pressure, impaired regulation of blood sugar, and a high body mass. These symptoms are referred to as metabolic syndrome and can precede chronic problems such as diabetes and heart disease. To understand how socioeconomic status affects health, it is important to look at poor children who became healthy adults. A study analyzing differences between healthy and unhealthy adults coming from poor families suggests that the mother plays an important role. In this research, medical data was analyzed from 1,215 adults (mean age 46) in 1995-1996 and again a decade later (when 1,200 adults returned). Socioeconomic status was inferred by the educational attainment of the parents. First of all, the study replicated earlier findings in showing that adults with better health tended to come from families who were better off. Children who grew up in families in which neither of the parents had a high school diploma, had a 1.4 higher chance to have metabolic syndrome as adults compared to children whose parents had a college degree. There was one exception: people from poor families with nurturing mothers were not more likely to develop metabolic syndrome than people whose families were not poor. Nurturing moms are moms who devote attention to the emotional well-being of their children, have time for them and show affection and caring. It seems that children with nurturing moms have reduced stress levels and are better able to cope with stress which has a positive influence on their health as they grow into adulthood. The research, conducted by a multidisciplinary team led by psychologist Gregory Miller of University of

British Columbia, will be published in the journal Psychological Science. The research shows the importance that children learn how to cope with negative outcomes. Although the present research focused on the role of the mother, children can also learn these coping strategies from others close to them, such as their father, grandparents or their school teachers. As an example, in the Netherlands a new training program has been made available for Dutch secondary schools to help children develop a positive self-image and cope with negative outcomes. View more info here.

EDUCATION SINGLE-SEX SCHOOLING ONLY MAKES THINGS WORSE In recent years, while single-sex schooling has become increasingly popular, it also remains highly debated. The discussion on segregated schooling is prompted by the differing school performances of boys and girls. For instance, boys tend to perform better in math while girls tend to perform better at language. Furthermore, boys tend to drop out of school more often and generally (besides in math) perform worse than girls. In addition, it is argued that the brains of boys and girls are different and develop at different rates.

For some, single-sex teaching is seen as a solution to dealing with these differences, leading to better 37

educational outcomes for both boys and girls. However, based on a major review of evidence for single-sex education published in Science, researchers claim that segregated schooling does not lead to improved school performances for boys and girls. In fact, in most studies, segregated schools performed equally well as mixed sex schools. Also, segregated schooling increases gender stereotyping and legitimizes institutional sexism, according to researcher Diane Halpern. In a context where boys and girls do not mingle and interact with each other in positive ways, the other sex will become an outgroup instead of being part of the ingroup. This will trigger the development of more stereotypical views because segregation based on gender will make gender differences more salient. This salience will reinforce stereotypical views and sexism. Stepping aside from the scientific evidence on segregated schooling, the question is also if segregated schooling is desirable from a moral stance. There are ample examples in history where people were segregated based just on their sex, race or religion. Instead of segregating boys and girls, other ways could be sought to boost their performances in an educational setting where boys and girls are mixed and can learn from each other.

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BOOK & REVIEW The Inquisition of Climate Science

James Lawrence Powell

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism

Melanie Joy

While one researcher claims the world is warming up and the human release of carbons is in large part responsible for this, another is simultaneously denying this claim. Indeed, our climate is part of a large controversy dividing scientists and politics alike. Nowadays, more and more people are skeptical about global warming even though the scientific evidence is piling up. This shows that the ‘denial movement’ is quite successful in getting people to distrust evidence supportive of climate change and to distrust those who claim our climate is changing. The Inquisition of Climate Science gives us the opportunity to become acquainted with the people who claim that our climate isn’t changing and learn the arguments they use to support their claim. The book shows that the denial movement is funded by and large by industries for whom the stakes are high. Industries such as oil companies, who contribute to the release of carbons in the environment, are very much dependent on the outcomes of this controversy. Furthermore, Powell describes how the arguments and rhetoric the deniers use to back up their story are deceptive, just like the so-called ‘scientists’ who make these kinds of claims.

Melanie Joy’s Why we love dogs, eat pigs, and wear cows brings to light the moral incongruence that our western diet is based upon. We love our dogs and cats, we value kindness to animals and support animal welfare organizations such as WWF, but at the same time we consume meat from other animals and wear animals as our ‘second skin’. More often than not, these animals are badly abused during their short lives. The book describes the elaborate ways we humans deal with this moral dilemma. The author discusses how we are lured into the idea that the animals we consume live outside in beautiful and spacious farmland instead of being packed together in small stables devoid of daylight and space. Furthermore, the meat we buy in our supermarket, shares no resemblance to the ways pigs, chickens, or cows look. This way, most people don’t have to see the many cruelties that occur in the meat industry when they are buying their food. This should change, according to Dr. Melanie Joy. As part of her work she compares factory farming with slavery and the slaughtering of animals for consumption as genocide. The message of this book will be hard to digest.

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On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind’s Hard-Wired Habits

Cleopatra: A life

Wray Herbert

Stacy Schiff

In recent years, there have been a lot of books on the biases and contortions that drive our thinking and decision making. When it comes to its scope, On second thought is no different from these other books. However, where does differ is to break with the popular claim that speedy and thoughtless decision making is always best. Instead, the book describes how this can lead to poor decisions. The trick is to know when to trust your gut-feeling and when it’s better to have second thoughts. Of course, with all the smaller and bigger decisions we make on a daily-basis, we don’t have time to think deeply about every decision we have to make. Luckily, our minds have evolved in such a way that this is also not necessary. We use mental short-cuts and biases to lead the way. For instance, did you know that the neatness of your desk affects your political preferences, or that feeling lonely makes you shiver? Besides getting to know all there is to know about our mental tricks, the author tries to help us deciding when to trust our gut-feelings and when to think a bit longer about our choices.

We all know Cleopatra, the beautiful Egyptian ruler who had famous affairs with both Caesar and Marc Antony. She is the heroin in many movies and novels and her myth in known by people all over the world. Instead of giving you the romantic, fictional story, Cleopatra brings you the facts about Cleopatra and places her in proper historic context. In this book, Cleopatra is not defined by her beauty or by the men she had affairs with, but is presented as a canny ruler and shrewd negotiator, and as a woman who was smarter and more educated than most men in her time. These new insights on Cleopatra do not stem from her own writings as none of them remained. However, the author does a marvelous job of analyzing how the mythical Cleopatra that we know today, came into existence. In order to do so, Shiff focuses on what was written about her by the Romans, who – in the end – were her enemies. Schiff, who already won a Pulitzer Prize for her Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) (1999), provides a new interpretation of the life of one of history’s most intriguing women.

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