With India and Pakistan both holding arsenals of nuclear weapons, and the two nations locked in seemingly endless hostility over disputed Kashmir, a team of U.S. experts warns that even a limited nuclear war between them could cause a near-global threat to the Earth's atmosphere and the human life it protects.
Thousands of instruments emplaced around the world to detect earthquakes and monitor once-secret Soviet nuclear tests are finding new uses for scientists in a field they call "forensic seismology." So sensitive are the devices that they can even measure the precise timing of waves pounding against a shoreline after a storm, and record the impact of plane crashes, falling buildings or explosions.
Hoping technology might end the global warming problem that technology has caused, a Texas space scientist wants to build solar power plants on the moon and send their electric energy down to Earth on beams of microwaves.
Intelligence analysts hunting Taliban bases and troop movements with globe-circling satellites have significantly improved their eyesight since the Gulf War a decade ago, experts say. Improved high-speed computer connections can instantly flash full-color scenes to battle commanders at sea and on the ground, making satellite images far more useful today than ever before.
A Harvard biochemist and biological warfare expert charged yesterday that Russia's widespread network of germ warfare plants remain barred to Western inspectors despite long-standing agreements with the United States and Britain to end the secrecy.