31 Issue 5, p44, 6p, 4c. A new wave of research suggests that the fetus can feel, dream, even enjoy The Cat in the Hat . The abortion debate may never be the same. They gaze adoringly as their new child stretches and squirms, scrunches its mouth and opens its eyes. To anyone watching this tender vignette, the message is unmistakable.
Birth is the beginning of it all, ground zero, the moment from which the clock starts ticking.
Not so, declares Janet DiPietro. Nothing neurologically interesting happens. Armed with highly sensitive and sophisticated monitoring gear, DiPietro and other researchers today are discovering that the real action starts weeks earlier. And it continues to do so for the next 12 weeks. As if overturning the common conception of infancy weren't enough, scientists are creating a startling new picture of intelligent life in the womb.