Pssst, wanna hear a secret?  Dr. Gail Saltz writes about people who have kept secrets from spouses, family members, friends and themselves.  That is not all though, she is an okay writer and the book was a solid read but it left me ever so wanting for a few more secrets.  Pass it on!

Scherzo di Follia; Accession Number: 2005.100.198 (detail) metmuseum.org

By way of a full disclosure, I have written about secret lives before in my blog: How to Disappear – When you Really Need to Go!  That read was more of a how to book to disappear when you don’t want others to find you (e.g. after winning the lottery and avoiding your dead-beat relatives).  Saltz’s book provides an alternative perspective of living a secret life, the psychological impact.  Her biography lists her accomplishments as “Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, columnist, bestselling author“.  This book is based on her experiences with the first two: Dr. Saltz, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

From these experiences she provides a series of pseudo-case histories from her own practice including a matronly shop lifter, a happy married sex-addict and an upper-middle class tax cheat.  She also introduces some of the famous people who have lived secret lives such as:

• T.E. Lawrence or Lawrence of Arabia; military hero and sexual pervert.
• Charles Lindbergh: american hero and polygamist.
• An assortment of rogues-galley such as Ted Bundy.

Not every secret of course is as pathological, immoral or criminal.  In fact secrets are part of childhood.  According to Saltz, keeping secrets establishes an identity outside that of your parent’s.  The secrets start with playing peek-a-boo, evolves to secrets about possessions (including secret friends) in mid-childhood and then secrets of shame in adolescents.  Secrets are part of an adult world ranging from passwords, PIN numbers, sexual tastes of your spouse, non-disclosure agreements or even your own self-talk about whether or not to kill your SOB-boss.

These secrets, through our life-journey, are necessary or largely harmless.  There is a tipping point when a secret goes from a protected password to gnawing at one’s psychological health.  Saltz lists the cost of keeping these types of secrets both in the book and in two appendices (there are two Cosmopolitan Magazine like check lists for determining if someone you know has a secret or whether you have one); symptoms include:

• Moody, nervous, temper, beleaguered, preoccupied
• Acts suspicious such as unaccounted for time away from friends, family or work
• Missing money or unexplained bills
• Depression, physical ailments or exhaustion

In other words, it may be the flu, a bad weekend in Las Vegas, over spending for a surprise birthday party or there may be a dark secret.  This is hardly a convincing list and this is where I find Saltz’s book a bit disappointing.  Saltz’s remedy for most secrets in the book is to go and see a shrink for absolution.  As well, although she introduces some historical secret keepers, she missed some real whoppers.  Folks like high-ranking Nazi officials living in Argentina, Alan Turing living with both a war and a homosexual secret life or even ex-CIA or secret agents living with the actions demanded of them by their country.

In other words, Saltz’s book is good, but not great.  The psychology she introduces seems a bit to pop-psychology like and a little too good to be true.  I would have liked a bit more meat to go with the secret-sauce Saltz was serving up in the book, ‘Anatomy of a Secret Life’.

The Manhattan Project is well-known to even the most history illiterate.  The general story is that $2 Billion (1940’s) dollars were spent on secret facilities (including one in New Mexico, Los Alamos) to beat the Nazis to building the bomb.  A German surrender meant that the bomb was dropped on Japan ending the hostilities of the Second World War.

Traditional history is that the two bombs saved about 500,000 allied soldiers from death and dismemberment and many fold more Japanese military and civilians.  Revisionist history suggests that Japan was on the state of surrender anyway and the bombings (in particular the second one on Nagasaki) were unnecessary.

Los Alamos National Laboratory; “Jumbo”, a 200 ton container, was originally intended to be a part of the Trinity test, but was eliminated in final planning. Credit: Digital Photo Archive, Department of Energy (DOE), courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.

Before the bombs, there was the effort to create the bombs.  In perfect hindsight, it is generally acknowledged that the Germans had no hope of ever developing a similar device. They had neither the treasure, time or talent to do so (on the talent front, their policies encouraged many of the central players such as Teller, a refuge from Hungary, to be available for the British and American efforts).  Nevertheless, in the dark days of the early 1940’s such knowledge was not available and the assumption was that London or New York could become a smoking pile of radioactive waste.  And thus the most American effort to the build the bomb.

Jennet Conant explores this effort in her book, “109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos”.  Conant is an excellent story-teller and this is a great read for the history or leadership buff.  There are two central figures in the book.  The first, well-known to history, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer and the second largely unknown, Mrs. Dorothy McKibbin.  Dorothy was Los Alamos’ first employee and she manned the Santa Fe address that was the front for the laboratory many miles away.  More than simply a functionary, she was the sole contact for hundreds and then thousands of scientists, engineers, contractors and their families while they were in virtual lock down for nearly two years.  She located hard to find and rationed supplies, was a confidant, tireless worker and supplied her home for a number of marriages amongst the inhabitants Los Alamos (due to war-time secrecy only their first names appeared on the marriage license).  Down to earth, practical and a friend to all she was the perfect foil for Oppenheimer who was brilliant and could be arrogant and oblivious to social niceties.

The book rounds out an understanding of Oppenheimer.  For example, he was an avid outdoors man who would spent days trail riding or hiking in the desert.  This was an aspect of his personality that I would have not have guessed.  As the Director of Los Alamos, Oppenheimer had every reason to fail as a leader of the Los Alamos project because of his temperament and political past.  In the end, he commanded respect and loyalty amongst those who stayed and toiled – or hatred and loathing amongst those who left.  The leadership lessons focus on the establishment of a clear objective (building the bomb) and learning how to reach out to those who look to you for your leadership.

109 East Palace is a great companion read about the history of the project.  Ms. Conant brings a female perspective to the book telling the stories of wives, secretaries and families locked behind the secure gates and fences.  Conant does this without losing site of the technical and scientific achievement of the two years in Los Alamos.

In the end, a highly recommended book for those interest in history and leadership from a military, scientific, and female perspective.

The Xeno Chronicles: Dr. David H. Sachs and His Fantastic Plans for the Future of Medical Science by G. Wayne Miller

Xenotransplantation is the use of non-human organs in humans.  Follow this link if you want a good summary of the concept: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenotransplantation

Still with me, then consider reading this book if you want a slightly more complete understanding of one researcher in Xenotransplantation, Dr. David Sachs.  Dr. Sachs is a very sympathetic character who has a dream of saving people through the use of animal organs.  In 2005, the publication of the book, Dr. Sachs has had some success with a genetically bred pig.  Unfortunately concurrent with this success is the loss of his major funding source.

The author does a good job of both portraying Dr. Sachs as a highly capable research, boss and a nice person in general.  Glimpses into Dr. Sachs early life are provided including a bout of polio.  On the other side, Wayne Miller presents a reasonably balanced portrayal of the pros, cons and moral minefield of using ‘Babe’ for our human replacement parts.

Babe the pig – not the same variety used for xenotransplantation but possibly just as cute (and tasty!). (image courtesy of virgin media)

Personally, I don’t have a problem with the concept of breeding animals for replacement human parts.  As long as the animals are treated well and have their life ended humanly, breeding (and the eating) Babe so that a person can life a fuller and longer life is okay with me.  Unfortunately (or fortunately for Babe), Xenotransplantation seems to be a long way off.

Although Baboons have survived a few months on pig hearts, every hurdle cleared seems to expose another challenge.  Thus, my larger problem with pursuing xenotransplantation is the diversion of resources away from other organ sources.

For example, an Opt-Out rather than an Opt-In system can increase the supply of donations.  In an Opt-Out system, everyone is assumed to be a donor unless they have expressly requested that they take their organs to the grave (Monty Python movie sketches notwithstanding).  A better registration of the intent to donate can mean that organs don’t go to waste when there was an intent to donate (e.g. Alberta’s new Donor Registry).

The challenge with a better human (or allotransplantation) is still rejection by the recipient.  Although this has improved over the decades with better matching and drugs, rejections is a threat looming over everyone saved with a new organ.  Xenotransplantation has a better supply of organs but the reasons for rejection.

Which leads me to my conclusions of xenotransplantation, this book and a lifetime of research conducted by Dr. Sachs.  I suspect that it may be time to give up on the idea of Babe as an organ donor.  It was a good idea and a good try but the effort remaining and the risk of cross species disease transmission does not make a good investment for society.  Instead, lets continue improving the supply of organs but also put our efforts into either machines that duplicate an organs function or growing  organs through cloning.

A machine that duplicates an organ function can be ever more precisely engineered.  Thus the clumsy artificial heart of the 1990’s can quickly become the science fiction of tomorrow.  Even better, lets grow or clone replacement organs and thus eliminate rejection and disease cross contamination.

So my thoughts on the idea of Xenotransplantation, Dr. Sachs and Miller’s book?  A good idea whose investigation was worthwhile and an okay book for those who can find it cheap or free.

Being in my ’50s, I remember the Cold War.  In the early 1980’s, I had earnest discussions with friends about the merits of nuclear deterrence, the policies of Ronald Reagan and the threat of the Soviet Union.  While now seemingly a distant memory, the 1980’s were also the last full decade when us humans faced mass extinction via nuclear war on a global scale.  In this new century, we can now look forward to only localized extinction.

Nuclear Explosion – Courtesy of the Guardian

The 1980’s is the context for Eric Schlosser’s book, “Command And Control: Nuclear Weapons, The Damascus Accident, And The Illusion Of Safety”.  (Some of Schlossers other books include: Fast Food Nation, Chew On This, and Reefer Madness).  Schlosser paints both a sympathetic and frightening picture of nuclear weapons, their record of safety (sort of 100%) and how close we all came to extinction in the Cold War – but did not because of divine intervention or dumb luck.  Schlosser has written the near-perfect non-fiction history.  He blends a central story and the large tapestry of the nuclear weapon ‘industry’ from the late 1930’s to present day.  The story is about a tragic accident at a Titan II missile facility near Damascus Arkansas in 1980.  One airman dropped one socket which resulted in the destruction of the facility and risk of a nuclear explosion.  On that day, confusion, bravery and a system unable to cope with the unexpected reigned – and this formed the central story of Command and Control.

Missile Silo – Post Explosion

Most of the book, however, deals with the context and the events leading up to the dropped socket and its effects afterwards.  Schlosser has written an extremely balanced book.  Too often in current popular culture, the US Military, Ronald Reagan or nuclear weapons are painted in dogmatic caricatures.  Instead Schlosser provides excellent context to these people and events – without pulling punches for incompetence.  A good example of this balance is his discussion of the anti-nuclear movement in Europe against the NATO deployment of Pershing II missiles in Europe.  His wry observation is that the protestors of the 1980’s were demanding missiles, not yet installed, be removed while blissfully ignoring the Soviet and Eastern Bloc missiles already deployed and pointed at their homes.

In the end, Command and Control is about fallibility of people, systems and technology – and the role that bravery, systems, good technology – and a lot of luck – played in avoiding any serious accident in the American or NATO nuclear arsenal.  While inspiring from the perspective of good people doggedly working to make the system better, Schlosser leaves the reader with a few warnings.  First, there are still tens of thousands of weapons of various designs and states of repair in the world.  The relative peace we have had since the 1990’s has made nuclear Armageddon less likely but has also increased the chance of an accident as these weapons age, experience personnel retire, less reliable countries develop weapons and organizational culture changes while weapon custody does not.

The second lesson Schlosser imparts is that complex systems (with multiple points of contact and connection) increase the chance of an accident.  At the very least, a complex system may experience a catastrophic run away response to an otherwise small error.  Complex systems, such as the command and control of a nuclear arsenal, have inter-dependent parts that can act unpredictably when under stress or when exposed to unexpected influences.

Schlosser has written an excellent book that is very accessible.  My only critique would be the cast of thousands introduced and the difficulty keeping the individuals straight (particularly when listening to the audio version of the book).  Otherwise, a great read and highly recommended for all military and history buffs out there.

PS.  Apparently you can buy decommissioned missile bases.  For only a million dollar (ish) you can own the worlds greatest paint ball facility/deep scuba-diving tank.

View of a Titan II Complex