Science and technology run deep in my novels.  In PHARMA and CARDIAC, I spent as much time researching the plausibility of the technological breakthroughs as I did editing the pages. 

A few words about the science in PHARMA:  In some of the world’s most remote (and classified) laboratories, man-eating plants have already been developed. While eco-activists, politicians and a concerned public  focus on the “green” agenda (reforesting the Amazon, reducing carbon emissions, etc.), some of the smartest minds today are secretly working to give Mother Earth a fighting chance. Whose side are they on?

Genetics engineering is a wonderful and terrifying tool.  What if a tree took only four days to grow forty feet?  What if vines could spread as fast as you can walk?  Why trim your hedge when you can reformat its shape and color from your computer?  Why worry about the ozone if we can grow forests that can cover the state of Kansas in a matter of weeks?

Plant life has been a slave to man for eons.  Of course, history shows us that the oppressed do not remain enslaved for very long.   It’s happening already (see below).  In PHARMA, we see how such a revolution could be seeded and cultivated.  Are scientists giving our green friends an unfair advantage?  Is another punctuational change on the horizon?

Recently I filed a patent in the mobile technology industry.  I am writing another thriller that involves wireless technologies, and developed through the research a unique method for protecting one’s personal privacy in an increasingly un-private mobile world:

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LOCATION PRIVACY AND LOCATION INFORMATION MANAGEMENT OVER WIRELESS SYSTEMS

Patent Office #: 61300428

Inventor: Robert (Rip) Gerber

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE: A method for allowing the management of permissions, notifications and reporting pertaining to a wireless device and the physical location of the device obtained via automatic location identification (ALI) technologies.  A location preferences management system and method is provided for wireless users utilizing a mobile application requesting location fixes via any telecommunication technology.  The location management system provides these mobile users with a comprehensive understanding of the location permissions and notifications and hence the location transactions associated with their wireless device and with the ability to manage it in a way that makes sense for their personal or business needs.

Another subject that I am exploring is the Antarctic.  The following article was posted by my friend Frank Gerber on his remarkably informative website www.franklygreen.com on February 26, 2007:

Antarctic Ice Melt Reveals Exotic Creatures

• For first time scientists have been able to catalog wildlife beneath two ice shelves
• Hundreds of specimens collected, including possibly new species
• Global warming blamed for the ice shelves’ demise, scientists say

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/25
/antarctica.icecreatures.reut/index.html?section=cnn_latest

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Spindly orange sea stars, fan-finned ice fish and herds of roving sea cucumbers are among the exotic creatures spied off the Antarctic coast in an area formerly covered by ice, scientists reported Sunday.

This is the first time explorers have been able to catalog wildlife where two mammoth ice shelves used to extend for some 3,900 square miles over the Weddell Sea.

At least 5,000 years old, the ice shelves collapsed in two stages over the last dozen years. One crumbled 12 years ago and the other followed in 2002.

Global warming is seen as the culprit behind the ice shelves’ demise, said Gauthier Chapelle of the Polar Foundation in Brussels