The thin red line
Both opposition forces and the Syrian government have alleged that chemical weapons were used in last Tuesday's attack on the village of Khan al-Assal, bringing to the fore one of the most potentially...
View ArticleDisarmament and the pro-life movement: A match made in heaven?
They identify with different ends of the political spectrum, but nuclear disarmament activists and anti-abortion protesters have something in common: A desire to protect innocent life.That shared...
View ArticleWhy humans should go to Mars
Humans first emerged from Africa around 60,000 years ago in search of new lands to explore and colonize. Since then, we've spread out across much of the planet and even gone into low Earth orbit in the...
View ArticleShooting down the Star Wars myth
It has been 30 years since US President Ronald Reagan called for development of a missile defense system that was supposed to make nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete." The Strategic Defense...
View ArticleLessons not learned: Insider threats in pathogen research
In the classic film Dr. Strangelove, Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper was the ultimate insider threat. As the nuclear-armed B-52s that Ripper unilaterally dispatched proceeded toward their Soviet targets, the...
View ArticleInterview with Siegfried Hecker: North Korea complicates the long-term picture
Pronouncements from Pyongyang during the past few weeks have been ominous, among other things threatening the United States and South Korea with preemptive nuclear attacks. North Korea announced on...
View ArticleScience, art, and the legacy of Martyl
Martyl Langsdorf, the artist who created the Doomsday Clock, died on March 26th at the age of 96 in Chicago. Known to many friends and fans simply as Martyl, she was a petite and vivacious woman who...
View ArticleWho would use chemical weapons?
The combatants in Syria are pointing fingers at each other. Syrian officials claim that the rebels used chemical weapons in a March 19th attack against Khan al-Assal, a town near Aleppo; the rebels say...
View ArticleCould a nuclear-armed Iran be contained?
On September 4, 1962, President John F. Kennedy released a statement in response to intelligence reports of a Soviet arms buildup in Cuba. Kennedy said the United States did not have evidence "of the...
View ArticleChina moves cautiously ahead on nuclear energy
From 2005 to 2011, China rapidly developed its nuclear power capacity. In 2010 alone, it began operations at two new reactors and broke ground on 10 more, accounting for more than 60 percent of new...
View ArticleYour money or your life?
When I moved to a neighborhood known as the "murder capital" of New York City, I figured it was only a matter of time before someone held a knife to my throat and demanded my wallet. I would hand it...
View ArticleIf the Boston Marathon attack had involved dirty bombs
Last month's Boston Marathon bombing was horrific enough without getting into ways in which it could have been worse. But in fact there is one avenue of speculation worth exploring, because doing so...
View ArticleHow do you solve a problem like plutonium?
Four years ago in Prague, President Barack Obama focused the world's attention on a "strange turn of history:" Even as the danger of global nuclear war has lessened, the threat we face from nuclear...
View ArticlePaying for the great urbanization of China
Consider the impact Pierre L'Enfant had when he laid out Washington, DC, or when Robert Moses worked his plans for New York, or when Daniel Burnham designed Chicago. These planners set patterns that...
View ArticleTurkey's nuclear ambitions
This month Turkey and Japan agreed to begin exclusive negotiations on constructing four nuclear power reactors at Sinop on the Black Sea. The deal marks the start of Turkey's second nuclear power...
View ArticleIt's smart to scale back nuclear weapons spending
As part of his effort to win Republican support for the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) in 2010, President Obama submitted to lawmakers a 10-year plan to maintain and modernize US...
View ArticleUS budget cuts threaten nuclear safety
On May 20, the US House of Representatives approved legislation that would implement two major international nuclear security accords. The move should be cause for celebration among those fighting the...
View ArticleSaving the ozone layer and the climate
Although reducing emissions of carbon dioxide is essential if climate change is to be slowed and then halted in the long run, researchers are analyzing a number of alternative pathways for reducing...
View ArticlePandora's false promise
Pandora's Promise, a documentary film by director Robert Stone that opens in US cities on June 12th, is the story of one-time anti-nuclear power activists who now advocate using nuclear energy.
View ArticleBarely lethal
The June 7th arrest of actress Shannon Richardson for allegedly sending ricin-tainted letters to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama comes after two other ricin-related...
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