The Unofficial Hunger Games Companion (42 page)

As for replicating warbles, deep tones, and songs with multiple verses (for example, see
The Hunger Games,
43, and
Catching Fire,
92), real mockingbirds are known for mimicry. They imitate the songs of nuthatches, wrens, cardinals, purple martins, blue jays, kestrels, kingfishers, woodpeckers, gray catbirds, swallow-tailed kites, flickers, and other birds. A mockingbird will imitate calls from one type of bird repeatedly, then follow directly after with songs from other birds. Three phrases, four, five, six, eight: It doesn’t matter to mockingbirds, for they just instinctively know how to imitate the sounds and will rapidly mix them as if they’re some electronic wizard spinning sounds on mixed recordings. Within one minute, a mockingbird may produce fifteen or twenty different songs. Within ten minutes, it can produce as many as 200 songs in total. And within thirty minutes, more than 450. However, the male mockingbird does seem to make up songs as he goes along, and he also increases his repertoire and creativity when trying to attract females.

On expert, Donald Kroodsma, a Professor Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Visiting Fellow at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, estimates that the male mockingbird might know 100 different songs, and he points out that other expert researchers put the number at 200 different songs, at 167, and at 148. The numbers vary from bird to bird, from researcher to researcher because the “males increase their vocabulary size from one year to the next,” says Kroodsma. “The mind of the mocker is dynamic, never completely settled, as he continually changes all that he can say.”
⁹

Among bird experts, the mockingbird is known as the ultimate learner of songs with a phenomenal ability to mimic new sounds. Any society, such as the Capitol, that can genetically create such a wide variety of animal muttations in the lab can also create a jabberjay that remembers and repeats human sounds. Assuming jabberjays mated with mockingbirds, it’s not a stretch to think that the resulting mockingjays can mimic human vocal sounds and repeat songs. Just as the Capitol figures the mockingjay will never survive in the long run, they underestimate the ability of the true mockingjay—Katniss—to survive, as well.

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T
he Hunger Games series contains quite a bit of speculative science, the stuff of traditional science fiction. Several of the most obvious are the muttations, including the mockingjays and the tracker jacker venom. But the books include other forms of science that either already exist or will exist in the very near future. Examples are the zapping force fields on the rooftops and in the arena; the night-vision glasses; the body armor; Peeta’s prosthetic leg; the high-tech showers; the automatic clothing and food devices; and the Holo contraption. Because the speculative science is part of the “wow” factor of the entire Hunger Games phenomenon, we’ll touch upon a few of these topics; but keep in mind that the science is really quite minor in the series compared to other subjects: hunger, survival, love, death (and its many ways of happening), evil, torture, weapons, repressive regimes, strength, honor, ethics, determination, and even compassion in the face of terrible odds.

Let’s begin with the force fields, which are used several times throughout The Hunger Games series. For example, in the first book, when Peeta and Katniss are at the edge of the Training Center roof in the Capitol, Peeta tells her that he asked Cinna why the officials don’t worry about tributes leaping to their deaths. The reason is that there’s a force field that tosses people back on the roof if they try to jump off. In
Catching Fire,
we learn that Haymitch won his Hunger Games when the girl from District 1 threw an ax at him, he ducked, the ax flew over a ledge, and then, bam! the ax hit a force field and flew back up and buried itself in her (
Catching Fire,
202). And of course, Peeta and Katniss encounter a force field, as well, during training; it protects the Gamemakers from the tributes. Finally, there’s a force field in the
Catching Fire
arena.

Force fields are common gimmicks in science fiction. They seem to be in almost every episode of
Star Trek
. They’re typically used like invisible walls and deflector shields. Force fields are still the stuff of science fiction more than science reality. However, some progress is being made in developing them.

In 2010, British researchers described new force-field technology that they’re developing to protect military vehicles from incoming fire. As described by science correspondent Richard Gray, “When a threat from incoming fire is detected by the vehicle, the energy stored in the supercapacitor [in the armor of the vehicle] can be rapidly dumped onto the metal plating on the outside of the vehicle, producing a strong electromagnetic field.”
¹

Then there’s the Trophy Active Defense System (ADS) that a company called RAFAEL developed along with the Israeli Defense Research and Development Directorate. According to officials at General Dynamics, which bought the force-field technology from RAFAEL, “the system demonstrated effective neutralization of antitank rockets and guided missiles, high safety levels, insignificant residual penetration and minimal collateral damage.”
²

As for night-vision glasses, you can easily obtain these devices now, and they do enable you to see objects that are two hundred yards or more away—in total darkness. Rue tells Katniss that the officials supply a few kids with night-vision glasses during harvest season so the work can continue after dark.

Apparently, the Capitol has an excellent type of body armor, and when Cato’s wearing it, Katniss just can’t seem to kill him. But the mutts eventually chew and destroy the full-length body armor and nearly kill him (
The Hunger Games,
335–37).

Body armor has existed since the beginning of human history. For thousands of years, every advance in weaponry brought an equal advance in personal armor, until the invention of guns and cannons in the sixteenth century changed the world. It wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century that armor managed to catch up with weaponry, but just barely.

Bulletproof vests provide the user with some protection against gunfire, but all too often, not enough. A modern bulletproof vest doesn’t use metal but high-tech woven fibers to protect the wearer.

This soft body armor is based on the principle of spreading the energy at the point of impact of a bullet (or other missile) over a wide area. This dispersal occurs using an interlaced net of anchored tethers that form an interlocking pattern, which absorbs the energy no matter where the projectile hits. In most bulletproof clothing, long, thin strands of Kevlar fiber make up the netting. Kevlar is a lightweight fiber made by DuPont that is five times stronger than a similar piece of steel. When thickly woven, Kevlar is extremely dense and almost impossible for a regular bullet to penetrate.

The momentum from a bullet is often powerful enough to break bones, which is why bulletproof vests are usually made from several layers of woven, twisted Kevlar netting and layers of plastic film. The plastic film helps spread the force of the impact from the bullet over a wide space, thus lessening the blunt trauma caused by the projectile. To increase the protection offered by soft body armor, ceramic and metal plates are often inserted in pockets in the front of the armor.

Even more advanced, a human exoskeleton suit consists of a robotic-type device that can be strapped on or attached directly to the human body. The device adds muscle power for heavy lifting, long-range running, and walking. It also enables the user to wear heavy armor without being affected by the weight.

It seems unlikely that the Capitol has provided tributes with exoskeletons. After all, the tributes aren’t leaping extraordinary heights, running incredibly fast as if barely on the ground, or functioning as if they have artificial pneumatic muscles. Besides, if the tributes were protected by exoskeleton armor, the Games would cease to amuse the Capitol and its citizens.

As for Peeta’s prosthetic metal-and-plastic leg, every reader of this book knows that these devices are available now. Prosthetic limbs are artificial replacements of flesh-and-blood limbs.

Peg legs are the simplest type of prostheses, and they have no electronic components. Another simple type of artificial appendage is an arm that ends with pincers rather than a hand with fingers; this simple limb is attached to whatever is left of the patient’s real arm. It is also attached to a harness that is strapped around the patient’s shoulders. When the patient moves his shoulder, the harness moves, pulling cables that open and close the hooks.

However, far more sophisticated devices do exist. Dynamic protheses contain electronic components and are based on myoelectric properties. In short, a myoelectric prosthesis contains sensors that respond to the electricity created by the movement of flesh-and- blood muscles. When a patient tenses his muscle—say, in his upper arm—the sensors in the prosthetic portion of his arm detect the myoelectric transmission and sends the corresponding signals to the artificial hand. Run by batteries, the hand opens or closes. Some prosthetic limbs even have sensors that detect temperature. These devices send hot and cold information to electrodes in the skin, enabling a patient to “feel” with his prosthetic limbs.

Today’s advances include artificial feet that cushion the body on the ground as if they are real; and feet with electronic components that enable patients to balance their weight more evenly. For example, the Elation Flex-Foot contains “flex-foot technology” along with adjustable heel heights. The Elation Flex-Foot automatically adjusts its mechanical pieces—known as foot blades and rocker plates—based on the amount of weight placed upon it. If a patient is heavier than average, if he shifts his weight from one foot to the other, or if he leans heavily in one direction, the foot blade presses more strongly against the rocker plate, thus changing the cushioning or impact of the foot against the ground. According to the makers of the Elation Flex-Foot, “A narrow, anatomically correct foot cover with a sandal toe contour is bonded to the foot, making it suitable for dress shoes, sandals, cowboy boots and other types of footwear.”
³

Prosthetic devices are commonly made from carbon fibers, titanium, and polypropylenes, which are flexible plastics. Prostheses can be constructed of a bulletproof material called Kevlar. To make limbs really strong, a prosthetic can be devised of a layer of carbon, a layer of Kevlar, and another layer of carbon.

According to
Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry Magazine,
⁴
much research is being done to create materials that emulate human muscles. For example, a full-size plastic skeleton named Mr. Boney roams around the University of New Mexico Artificial Muscle Research Institute. Mr. Boney’s microprocessor-controlled heart pumps a chemical fluid through his body, and this fluid is what actuates his artificial muscles.