Clifford A. Pickover received his Ph.D. from Yale University’s Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He graduated first in his class from Franklin & Marshall College, after completing the four-year undergraduate program in three years. His many books have been translated into Italian, French, Greek, German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Polish. One of the most prolific and eclectic authors of our time, Pickover is author of the popular books: A Passion for Mathematics (Wiley, 2005), Calculus and Pizza (Wiley, 2003), The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience (Palgrave/ St. Martin’s Press, 2002), The Stars of Heaven (Oxford University Press, 2001), The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars (Princeton University Press, 2001), Dreaming the Future (Prometheus, 2001), Wonders of Numbers (Oxford University Press, 2000), The Girl Who Gave Birth to Rabbits (Prometheus, 2000), Surfing Through Hyperspace (Oxford University Press, 1999), The Science of Aliens (Basic Books, 1998), Time: A Traveler’s Guide (Oxford University Press, 1998), Strange Brains and Genius: The Secret Lives of Eccentric Scientists and Madmen (Plenum, 1998), The Alien IQ Test (Basic Books, 1997), The Loom of God (Plenum, 1997), Black Holes—A Traveler’s Guide (Wiley, 1996), and Keys to Infinity (Wiley, 1995). He is also author of numerous other highly acclaimed books including Chaos in Wonderland: Visual Adventures in a Fractal World (1994), Mazes for the Mind: Computers and the Unexpected: (1992), Computers and the Imagination (1991), and Computers, Pattern, Chaos and Beauty (1990), all published by St. Martin’s Press—as well as the author of over 200 articles concerning topics in science, art, and mathematics. He is also coauthor, with Piers Anthony, of Spider Legs , a science-fiction novel once listed as Barnes and Noble’s second best-selling science-fiction title. Pickover is currently an associate editor for the scientific journal Computers and Graphics and is an editorial board member for Odyssey, Leonardo, and YLEM .

Editor of the books Chaos and Fractals: A Computer Graphical Journey (Elsevier, 1998), The Pattern Book: Fractals, Art, and Nature (World Scientific, 1995), Visions of the Future: Art, Technology, and Computing in the Next Century (St. Martin’s Press, 1993), Future Health (St. Martin’s Press, 1995), Fractal Horizons (St. Martin’s Press, 1996), and Visualizing Biological Information (World Scientific, 1995), and coeditor of the books Spiral Symmetry (World Scientific, 1992) and Frontiers in Scientific Visualization (Wiley, 1994), Dr. Pickover’s primary interest is finding new ways to continually expand creativity by melding art, science, mathematics, and other seemingly disparate areas of human endeavor. Pickover is also the author of the popular “Neoreality” science-fiction series ( Liquid Earth , Sushi Never Sleeps , The Lobotomy Clu b, and Egg Drop Soup ) in which characters explore strange realities.

The Los Angeles Times recently proclaimed, “Pickover has published nearly a book a year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art and thought.” Pickover received first prize in the Institute of Physics’ “Beauty of Physics Photographic Competition.” His computer graphics have been featured on the cover of many popular magazines, and his research has recently received considerable attention by the press— including CNN’s “Science and Technology Week,” The Discovery Channel, Science News , The Washington Post , Wired , and The Christian Science Monitor —and also in international exhibitions and museums. OMNI magazine described him as “Van Leeuwenhoek’s twentieth century equivalent.” Scientific American several times featured his graphic work, calling it “strange and beautiful, stunningly realistic.” Wired magazine wrote, “Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both.” Pickover holds over thirty U.S. patents, mostly concerned with novel features for computers.

For many years, Dr. Pickover was the lead columnist for Discover magazine’s Brain-Boggler column, and he currently writes the Brain-Strain column for Odyssey . His puzzle calendars and cards are designed for both children and adults and have sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

Dr. Pickover’s hobbies include the practice of Ch’ang-Shih Tai-Chi Ch’uan and Shaolin Kung Fu, raising golden and green severums (large Amazonian fish), and piano playing (mostly jazz). He is also a member of The SETI League, a group of signal processing enthusiasts who systematically search the sky for intelligent, extraterrestrial life. Visit his Web site, which has received over a million visits: http://www.pickover.com. He can be reached at P.O. Box 549, Millwood, New York 10546-0549 USA.

“Waiting for Time Travelers” Experiment

Given current trends in scientific progress, someday it may be possible for beings in the future to send a message to the past. Similarly, if advanced beings exist in parallel universes, then perhaps they are already trying to send us a message. In either case, their technologies should be sufficiently advanced for them to insert a message inside this box:

We await the appearance of a message.