pointing with his gloved hand.
Variations on virtual-reality technology already have been used to help physicians position beams of radiation for cancer therapy and to aid biochemists seeking to attach drugs to protein molecules. But vir- tual-reality researchers have more exalted goals in mind. One scientist told Wheeler that the technology's main aim should be to take people to "absolutely unreal" places. He envisions, for instance, people acting as variables in mathematical equa- tions...