by David Ellis
The science in the novel is sometimes real and sometimes hovers tantalisingly close to reality. Functional MRI has advanced dramatically since 2005 and mapping the perception of pain is an important research area with definite clinical applications. Functional MRI has even entered the domain of companies offering supposedly fool-proof lie detection, and in fact the US Department of Defense partially funded the research behind the technique.
Neurobiofeedback has been used for the treatment of a wide variety of disorders, including chronic pain, and a variety of neurobiofeedback systems are available for use in the home, including ones based on the PlayStation or Xbox.
Our understanding of the brain is still in its infancy and many believe that there are untapped abilities just waiting in the wings to emerge. The notion of psi energy produced as part of a primitive fight or flight response was the subject of an unsuccessful research grant application I made in the late 1970s. Parapsychology - remote viewing, in particular - was actively researched by the US Department of Defense from World War II until the 1970s. Conspiracy theorists believe that MI5 is using parapsychology on a daily basis to subjugate the entire UK population.
The evil eye has been the subject of extensive folklore, but butterflies don’t usually figure in written accounts of it. There’s an excellent account of the evil eye in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_eye. The droch-shùil remains a potent belief in the Scottish Highlands, although clan Armstrong doesn’t have a monopoly on the legend.
Butterflies, like most insects, respond to ultraviolet light and they have been known to group around humans or animals, including gorillas. They are probably also attracted to certain animal pheromones, such as that in female Indian elephant urine.
Professor Xavier in the ‘X-Men: First Class’ movie refers to heterochromia as “a very groovy mutation”. Whilst it can be caused by a mutation, heterochromia iridis is usually an entirely benign, autosomal dominant condition that’s found infrequently in humans and frequently in other species.
A genetic unit, derived from the firefly, which can be inserted into other life forms to spark bioluminescence, has been developed at the University of Cambridge, but it’s been limited to lighting up E. coli bacteria and tobacco plants so far. A gene from jellyfish has also been inserted into mice embryos to create mice that glow green under fluorescent light. But Mr Armstrong Senior probably wouldn’t be interested in that.
Biography
David Ellis worked in the NHS for 25 years and was a consultant liaison psychiatrist for 17 years. He was an undergraduate at St Peter’s College, Oxford in the 1970s and then a research scholar at Worcester College. His first foray into print was when writing on music technology to supplement his medical school grant. He has written books on medical computing and using computers to make music. He co-authored a book and software package to teach anatomy to medical students. He lives in North London with his husband and two cats. He doesn’t eat meat and goes to the gym daily. This is his first novel.
