rises and
falls in a cycle of eleven years?

NIEMAND. The number of spots on the Sun rises and falls in a cycle of
_about_ eleven years. That word _about_ makes quite a difference.

LATHAM. In what way?

NIEMAND. It means you can only approximately predict the future course
of sunspot activity. Sunspots are mighty treacherous things.

LATHAM. Haven't there been a great many correlations announced between
sunspots and various effects on the Earth?

NIEMAND. Scores of them.

LATHAM. What is your opinion of these correlations?

NIEMAND. Pure bosh in most cases.

LATHAM. But some are valid?

NIEMAND. A few. There is unquestionably a correlation between
sunspots and disturbances of the Earth's magnetic field ... radio
fade-outs ... auroras ... things like that.

LATHAM. Now, Dr. Niemand, I understand that you have been investigating
solar and terrestrial relationships along rather unorthodox lines.

NIEMAND. Yes, I suppose some people would say so.

LATHAM. You have broken new ground?

NIEMAND. That's true.

LATHAM. In what way have your investigations differed from those of
others?

NIEMAND. I think our biggest advance was the discovery that sunspots
themselves are not the direct cause of the disturbances we have been
studying on the Earth. It's something like the eruptions in rubeola.
Attention is concentrated on the bright red papules because they're such
a conspicuous symptom of the disease. Whereas the real cause is an
invisible filterable virus. In the solar case it turned out to be these
S-Regions.

LATHAM. Why S-Regions?

NIEMAND. We had to call them something. Named after the Sun, I suppose.

LATHAM. You say an S-Region is invisible?

NIEMAND. It is quite invisible to the eye but readily detected by
suitable instrumental methods. It is extremely doubtful, however, if the
radiation we detect is the actual cause of the disturbing effects
observed.

LATHAM. Just what are these effects?

NIEMAND. Well, they're common enough, goodness knows. As old as the
world, in fact. Yet strangely enough it's hard to describe them in exact
terms.

LATHAM. Can you give us a general idea?

NIEMAND. I'll try. Let's see ... remember that speech from "Julius
Caesar" where Cassius is bewailing the evil times that beset ancient
Rome? I believe it went like this: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in
our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings."

LATHAM. I'm afraid I don't see--

NIEMAND. Well, Shakespe