Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

A new study in the April 30 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience shows that people who drink moderately have increased activity in the part of their brains involved in rewards—and less activity in the parts used to detect threats.

Here’s what happened: 12 healthy people lay down at the National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Half were given IVs with alcohol. Half were given saline solution. (This study could have been much more fun than it was, admittedly.) Afterwards, while hooked up to brain imaging equipment, they all looked at pictures of people who looked…

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The Unthinkable hits the UK on July 3, 2008.

This is exciting since so much of the book relies on the wisdom of British researchers and survivors. The UK has long been way ahead of most places, including the States, when it comes to fire safety. That’s partly because London burned down twice—in 1212 and 1666. Nothing focuses the research funding like a mass-casualty disaster.

To understand computer models of crowd behavior in fire, I met with Ed Galea, director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich in London. Galea…

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Today’s New York Times has a story about the lack of good options for FEMA disaster housing. The tainted trailers obviously won’t work, and many other ideas are too expensive, too big or too nice, believe it or not.

Stories like this remind me how money does not always beget resilience. This country has enough talent and resources to build a house-in-a-box that keeps people safe and healthy (but is cheap to replace if a truly nightmarish storm comes in—and the people have to evacuate). But three years after Katrina, the…

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One day, you could get a text message from the president telling you to evacuate your home because of a chemical spill—or to take shelter in your basement because of a radiation attack. Today, the feds adopted rules for a nationwide text-message alert system. (Don’t panic: the messages would be free, and you could opt out if you wanted.)

A sensible idea. Regular people have been using text messages to save themselves and find loved ones for years. After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of kids taught their parents to text—and it was the only way to communicate for…

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The Unthinkable will be published in Norway by Gyldendal in early September of 2008.

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