Canadian defence department scientists have written the prime minister to urge him to regulate the efforts of private groups to communicate with extraterrestrials. The two fear that 'messages carelessly designed might put Earth at risk'. Dutil and Dumas are coordinating their own attempt to contact extraterrestrials as part of project Encounter 2001.

Scientists will soon be able to create viruses that never
existed before, and bring extinct horrors such as smallpox back to life,
says a leading geneticist who is working to create life from scratch.

Margaret Munro sifts through the hype surrounding nanotechnology advances and possibilities and examines some of its more practical near-term applications such as "curing cancer and creating bricks that can sense changing weather."

An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease could cost US$27-billion in the
United States alone, says Corrie Brown, a veterinary pathologist at the
University of Georgia, who has spent years researching agroterrorism scenarios.

The fantastic notion of a space elevator could be a reality before long. NASA has given HighLift Systems a US$570,000 grant to continue research into the elevator and the company has received an indication of support from the European Space Agency.

A leading space scientist is warning that small asteroids from space that detonate like bombs as they crash into Earth's atmosphere might accidentally set off a nuclear war.