RESEARCH: The Methuselah Man
Places and People
The
majority of the story takes place in the United States: Palo Alto, California,
Las Vegas, Nevada and Washington DC. Dr. Joe Rosenfeld was modeled after a
long-time friend of mine from college. I did my Masters work in counseling with
Joe at Northern Illinois University, but Joe got really serious about his
studies and went on to the University of Chicago for his doctorate. His
secretary, Liz Charles, was a friend of mine from my Philips Semiconductors
days. Other characters were modeled (or simply named) after friends; some are
pure fiction.
Things I learned
enroute to looking up other stuff!!
We first meet Wes at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
in Washington DC. where he and Crandall Forsyth refer to two names, people that
they knew. Both of these young men were real, but never got to live their lives.
I saw a touring version of The Wall in Cheyenne, WY while I was visiting Jim and
Carol Marshall (also characters in the book!), and made a point of finding
Dennis and Dale. Hopefully, mentioning them in this story will help those who
knew them best and were closest to them know that they are not forgotten. Click
their names for their remembrances:
Dennis Greenwald
&
Dale Plote (prn
Ploh-tee)
Items of interest regarding Methesulah gene
research and thoughts on Aging...
The Methuselah Report
The Human Aging
Process
Discovery of the
Methuselah Gene
Genes and Ageing - II
Cracking the
Longevity Code
Aging Revealed
Another major theme of The Methuselah Man
deals with nuclear energy, both for peace and war. The movie
Fatman and
Little Boy was informative on many counts, not the least of which was
the slow, agonizing death of John Cusack's character. But beyond cinema, I
needed to know more about radiation and its effects. While I was still
living in Palo Alto, CA I visited my friends in Las Vegas, Ron and Donna, to do some
research. In addition to going to the Las Vegas Atomic Testing Museum (a
fascinating and informative place to visit if you're ever here), Ron and
Donna made reservations for us to take the tour of the Mercury Test Site.
Here are some of the things I learned about this subject:
Albert Einstein letter to FDR - 1939
World Nuclear
Energy Background
Radiation Sickness
Radiation Poisoning
Another key concept in The Methuselah Man
is the Methuselah Man himself, Jared Kennan Cain, and his body's ability to
fend off disease. I wanted to know what kinds of diseases are out there and
what their symptoms might be. This is some of what I found...
Communicable Diseases
Plague
Armageddon online
And then there was travel! When I write about
planes or trains, I generally need to know two things: do they travel where
my characters need to go; and what are their schedules. In
The
Methuselah Man, a great sub-plot deals with a train ride from Kiev to
Bucharest, and Bucharest on to Istanbul. I had to do a bit of research to
find out if this route was possible, and what their schedule would be. I
also got some pix of the compartment that my character Taras Ostrovsky would
occupy for this trip. Those pix are in the PHOTOS section, and here is some
other stuff I found...
Train Schedules
Kiev-Istanbul
Calculations for the Trip
Finally, there were miscellaneous pieces of the
puzzle. The PATRIOT Act, the FBI, the dying process, and Life After Death!
For the last two, I would suggest the works of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who
writes about the five stages of the dying process. And a key book on life
after death was written by Raymond Moody in the '70s. I had read it back
then but couldn't find my copy (I tend to loan out books I like and then
forget to get them back!), but I was fortunate enough to find one lone copy
at a bookstore in Menlo Park a couple years ago. I believe it is out of
print, but you might be able to find a copy in a library, or find some other
writings on the subject...a fascinating one, to be sure! As to the first two
items noted above, here is what I found...
PATRIOT
ACT (BTW, read this then let me know how safe -- and 'private' -- you
feel!)
San
Francisco FBI Offices
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