On closer inspection, the squares are soft, textured.

Gentle colors-silvery grey, pale fawn, warm brown. At first glance it looks innocuous-small squares of color mounted on white background. At London’s the Grant Museum of Zoology, hanging on the back wall in a darkened corner, there is a framed exhibit. Animal experimentation has a particular horror for me. I mine myself deeply for each book but I only recently realized how far down I went, for Sundial. Perhaps the Langley dog experiments strike me as particularly appalling because they violate this-our first, most ancient covenant with another species. These early dogs were valued for hunting and defence, undoubtedly, but also undoubtedly for companionship. We domesticated dogs, brought them into our homes and lives and families before any other animal, including the arguably more useful ones like livestock for meat, pelt and wool. I have to write about this, I thought.ĭogs and humans, it was recently discovered, have lived together for longer than previously thought-over 11,000 years. I find this particularly abhorrent-the greed, and egregious pain suffered by living beings, for the sake of innovation.

The Langley dog experiments were discontinued after a few years, because there was no practical application. The debate rages, to this day-how much did the suffering and mental distress caused by this program dictate his later, murderous behavior? Was Kaczynski born a serial killer-or did the CIA help make him one? Famously, the Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was part of a group of undergraduates subjected to one of these highly controversial experiments during his time at Harvard, in the late 1950s. The project was part of the larger Behavior Modification program, which included experimentation on humans.

After, it should be noted, some grisly trial and error. Effectively, the CIA succeeded in creating six remote control dogs. The aim was to stimulate the reward centers-the dogs eventually learned to seek out the pleasurable feelings, and so could be asked to change direction and perform simple actions at the prompting of a handheld controller. In the late 1960’s, CIA scientists in Langley, Virginia implanted electrodes in dogs brains. I’m fascinated by the MK Ultra experiments that were performed by the CIA during the 1960’s and 70’s, and while looking for the subject of my next book, I came across one that produced a reflexive revulsion in me. Rob’s parents were scientists who carried out dubious experiments at Sundial during her childhood-and she realizes that this past might have implications for Callie’s future. Rob and Callie’s relationship is badly fractured-they mistrust one another, and each has a suspicion that the other means her harm. A traumatic event forces Rob to take her twelve year old daughter Callie on a bonding trip to her old childhood home in the California desert-Sundial.

Sundial by Catriona Ward