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the young man on his heels. He wouldn’t say it out loud, but he wasn’t surprised.
    Sid was in his first year of residency at UCONN Health Center. For a couple of days each week, he shadowed Ahmad on patient visits at the hospital. Smart, energetic, idealistic and dedicated, Sid was destined for great things as a neurologist. Of that, Ahmad was certain. But there were a few issues regarding how Sid dealt with people that the young man needed some work on. Legal aspects of research work clearly frustrated him, and the psychology of dealing with patients’ families also seemed to elude him. There was also a touch of arrogance Baer had noticed, in termsof how Sid dealt with staff, that needed some taming. There was a lot, however, in the young doctor that was workable.
    â€œYou won’t lose the funding,” Ahmad assured. “All you need to do is to go before the committee and they’ll renew it.”
    â€œI don’t want to go before the committee. Next year, it’ll be only more difficult than this year,” Sid told him. “I still can’t see what these families have against us doing the testing on the two patients. I mean, it’s not going to cost them anything, and it will definitely not make the individuals’ conditions worse. These patients are already in a coma.”
    Reaching the cashier, Ahmad stopped the young man from taking his wallet out and paid for both of their drinks.
    Sid was part of a team working on a new brain “reading” device. His work went beyond previous studies, which used MRIs to read a person’s possible intentions by focusing on changes in the medial prefrontal cortex of the subject’s brain. Sid’s research team had already made great advances. Instead of bulky MRI equipment, they now could use portable electronic scanning devices to read the brain’s activity. They were actually cracking the mind’s internal code to deduce what a person was thinking.
    The concern was that the researchers had no way of targeting specific thoughts. Whatever was going through the mind of the subject was what the instruments picked up. And there was no way to determine what was memory, what was real or what was imagined. Still, they were making tremendous strides in understanding how the brain functioned.
    â€œI know one of the lawyers who’s involved with this,”Ahmad told him. “Last time I spoke to him, he was reading up on the results that the neuroscience team at Berkeley published last year. Based on that study, the researchers were able to tap into the patient’s secret intentions and memories. Private stuff.”
    â€œYou know that we have no interest in the specific content of an individual, per se.”
    Ahmad shrugged. “I know that, but think of what the families are going through. They’re dealing with loved ones who have become paralyzed or have suffered mental impairment or have become comatose. They don’t know how long before these husbands or wives or brothers or sisters or parents will regain something of who they were…or if they ever will. This is as sticky as a living will. Decisions are difficult. There are privacy issues involved. There is always the chance that the patient might wake up tomorrow. What if your findings include revelations that are not particularly flattering…or are even criminal? Ethically and personally, the families have a problem with doing this. You can understand that.”
    They stopped by the elevators.
    â€œYou’re supposed to be on my side, Dr. Baer,” Sid complained, half in jest.
    â€œAnd I am. I understand the positive uses this program can have in the future for people who have become impaired,” Ahmad told the young man. “You are making important early steps here. What I’m saying is that you should take your time and not set your mind on the first good candidates you find in this hospital. I know that would have been