lnhe Frozen Future Doctors are always devising* new cures for diseases that kill people. But suppose you are dying from an incurable illness now. If only you could postpone death until a cure was found! Now some people are trying to do just that. One young man consented to having his body frozen and placed in a massive capsule in order to preserve it until doctors find a cure for his disease. Some peopie have denounced this unique experiment with a torrent of angry words. They resent human attempts to molest the natural order of life and death. There is also a gloomy fear that the world is already overcrowded and that people have to die to make room for those who are about to be born. If the experiment works, unforeseen problems undoubtedly* will arise.

A Valuable Discovery The laser is a marvelous device that sends out a slender, concentrated beam of light, a light that surpasses the light at the sun's surface. So vast is the laser beam's power that it has without a doubt the capacity to vaporize* any substance located anywhere on earth. The laser can penetrate steel, pierce a diamond, or make an accurate die for wire so thin that it can be seen only with a microscope.Grateful eye surgeons report that they have used laser beams to repair the retinas in some fortunate* patients by creating tiny scars that joined the retina to the eyeball. Pioneering* medical men are making cautious exploration* into cancer cures with the laser, confident that they will alter* the course of this brutal* disease.

Camp Safety For years a furniture salesman from Connecticut, Mitch Kurman, has toiled ceaselessly for the passage of a youth summer camp safety bill. Why? Because his son David was drowned when his canoe overturned in the raging waters of the Penobscot River. The camp counselors leading the trip were inexperienced, had blundered into dangerous waters, and had no life jackets for the canoers. Mr. Kurman was naturally dazed by the tragedy. But rather than merely mourn his loss and wait for the painful memory to subside, he began a campaign that took him on hundreds of journeys to speak to governors, senators, and congressmen. He had learned that 250,000 children are injured or maimed annually in camp accidents. It was hard for him to comprehend why we have laws that outlaw mistreatment of alligators, coyotes, birds and bobcats, but we have no law to prevent disasters to children in summer camps. Wherever he went, Mr. Kurman was commended for his efforts, but he received only trifling support from the lawmakers. One bill, requiring people to put on life preservers when they took to the water, died in the final reading. Another such bill exempted private ponds and lakes, exactly the waters where most summer camps are located. Even a bill calling for a survey of camp safety conditions was at first defeated. Mr. Kurman's struggle so far has been in vain, but he continues his battle to avoid a repetition of the accident that took his son's life.

Some Tall Tales "Do you think it is possible to defeat an opponent so fierce that a glance at her turns one to stone? This was the fate of anyone who looked upon the Medusa, a dreaded monster whose hair was made of hissing serpents. The brave Perseus undertook to fight the Medusa, but he was compelled to do battle in a most awkward manner. To help Perseus in his venture, the goddess Minerva had lent him her bright shield, and the god Mercury had given him winged shoes. Cautiously he approached the awesome monster. Using the image of the Medusa in his shield as a guide, he succeeded in cutting off her head and fixing it to the center of Minerva's shield. Perseus then flew to the realm of King Atlas whose chief pride was his garden filled with golden fruit. Thirsty and near collapse, he pleaded with the king for water to quench his thirst and for a place to rest. But Atlas feared that he would be betrayed into losing his golden apples. He uttered just one word, ""Begone!"" Perseus, finding that he could not pacify Atlas, responded by beckoning him to look upon Medusa's head. Atlas was changed immediately into stone. His head and hair became forests, his body increased in bulk and became cliffs, and the gods ruled that the heaven with all its stars should rest upon his shoulders. Can there be a worse calamity than that which befell Atlas?"

Safety in the Air The most persistent plea of weary pilots has always been for a machine that would warn them that they were about to collide with an oncoming airplane. Studies of landing patterns confirm that the number of collisions is increasing each year, and pilots verify hundreds of reports of near misses. Recently a system that would electronically anticipate oncoming airplanes was devised, and the pilot's dilemma to dive or to climb, to detour to left or right, may be solved. The system has merit, though, only if every plane is equipped to transmit and receive a signal to and from an oncoming plane. But most aviation experts feel that only a system that watches every airplane in the sky will relieve a problem that tends to baffle everyone who attempts to find a solution.