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E.g., 10/08/2013
Agree to Disagree
29 August 2008

Neurosecurity, a question of technology or cosmology?

Andreas RoepstorffSita Kotnis

In his latest commentary on culture and the brain, Jonathan Moreno addresses a crucial issue. So far, this discussion has mainly focused on technological advances brought forward by the rapid development in the neurosciences.

Sita Kotnis

Kotnis is a doctoral student in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and at the BIOS Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research focuses on security cultures and the military use of neurotechnology.

Reports
29 August 2008
Nuclear Energy

Nuclear waste repository case studies: Germany

Michael Sailer

Currently, there are 17 nuclear reactors at 12 different sites in Germany. According to a 2002 amendment to the country's 1959 Atomic Energy Act, each reactor has a fixed amount of megawatt hours that it's allowed to produce. When it reaches its limit, the reactor has to be shut down permanently. Therefore, depending on their age and production history, all of Germany's reactors are expected to cease operating between 2009 and 2023.

Michael Sailer

Sailer is a director of the Oeko-Institut e.V., an institute for applied ecology in Germany with which he's been affiliated since 1980.

Lyle Hopkins

A former captain in the U.S. Air Force, Hopkins led more than 100 joint-military intelligence specialists as a senior watch officer at Buckley Air Force Base. He also worked as an acquisition officer at Hanscom Air Force Base for the National Aerospace Systems program office.

Agree to Disagree
26 August 2008

Make GNEP a forum for discussion, not negotiation

Jill Marie Parillo

Leonor Tomero provides a comprehensive look at the current state of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) in her Bulletin Web-Edition series, "The Future of GNEP." She lays out the inherent proliferation risks

Alan Hanson

A nuclear engineer, Hanson serves as the executive vice president, technologies and used-fuel management at

Thomas B. Cochran

A nuclear physicist, Cochran is a senior scientist at the Natural Resource Defense Council's (NRDC) Nuclear Program and a member of the Energy De

Stephen M. Goldberg

A nuclear engineer, Goldberg is special assistant to the director at Argonne National Laboratory, where he's actively engaged in several international projects on the economics of nuclear

Jill Marie Parillo

Parillo is deputy director for security programs at Physicians for Social Responsibility. Her expertise includes nuclear weapon and energy policy and the promotion of scientific engagement with Iran.

Opinion
26 August 2008
Climate Change

Mixing climate change with the war on terror

Lyle Hopkins

Climate change and the war on terror mix like oil and water. Our understanding of climate change and its implications is built on hard science, which continues to grow in volume and refinement. It's a singular challenge on an order of magnitude that we've never encountered and solving it requires an unprecedented level of involvement and cooperation from all nations and people.

Columnists
25 August 2008
Climate Change

Oil: To drill or not to drill

Kurt Zenz House

We've all had the experience of talking with someone who has discovered "The Solution"--nearly always an overly simplistic idea that can only be advocated in the absence of accurate information. Regardless of subject matter, these acolytes insist that if the rest of us understood what they understand, then together, we could implement the obvious panacea. When implementation requires public policy, the believers become furious at policy makers whose intransigence --they believe--is dooming the country or even the world.

Columnists
25 August 2008
Nuclear Weapons

U.S.-Russian relations after the conflict in Georgia

Pavel Podvig

If there's a consensus about the confrontation between Russia and Georgia, it's that the conflict has seriously strained the relationship between Moscow and its Western counterparts--namely, the United States and NATO. Now that the worst of the conflict seems over, it appears that the harshest measures suggested in the first days of the conflict, i.e., expelling Russia from the G-8, won't materialize. Despite all of the disagreements and mistrust, each party seems to understand that severing ties between Russia and the West isn't realistic.

Thomas R. Pickering

The co-chair of the International Crisis Group, Pickering served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (1989-1992), India (1992-1993), and Russia (1993-1996).

Opinion
21 August 2008
Nuclear Weapons

Technical comments on the U.S. satellite shootdown

Yousaf Butt

Editor's note: The opinions expressed below are solely those of the author and not his employer.

Reports
18 August 2008
Nuclear Energy

The future of GNEP: Next steps

Leonor Tomero

With the global expansion of nuclear energy and the weakening of international rules governing nuclear trade, there's a risk that sensitive fuel-cycle knowledge may spread, allowing more countries to acquire the capabilities to build nuclear weapons. The Bush administration claims that its Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) will minimize this risk. Unfortunately, in reality, GNEP has encouraged the spread of the know-how that ultimately could allow many more countries to possess nuclear weapons.

Agree to Disagree
18 August 2008

Understanding neural functioning across cultures

Jonathan Moreno

I'd like to change the topic for a moment.

Agree to Disagree
14 August 2008

We should really worry about nuclear winter

Alan Robock

The greatest danger that humans pose to Earth isn't geoengineering, ozone depletion, or even global warming. Rather, it's the climatic consequences of nuclear war.

Randall Murch

A plant pathologist by training, Murch is associate director of the Center for Technology, Security, and Policy at Virginia Tech.

Agree to Disagree
11 August 2008

Military applications of neuroscience are unlikely from additional basic research alone

Christopher Green

I would like to reflect on the approaches taken by my colleagues, Jonathan Moreno and Margaret Kosal, in the beginning of this discussion.

Reports
8 August 2008
Nuclear Energy

The future of GNEP: Domestic stakeholders

Leonor Tomero

While the Bush administration has focused much attention on forging an international coalition to support the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), there are also considerable domestic stakeholders involved. In particular, to promote and build support for the program, the Energy Department has cultivated relationships with the national laboratories, universities, industry, and local businesses and governments throughout the country.

Columnists
8 August 2008
Biosecurity

Biosecurity lessons from the Bruce Ivins case

Laura H. Kahn

We'll never know if Bruce Ivins, a former U.S. government microbiologist, perpetrated the 2001 anthrax letter killings, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty convincing. The DNA of the anthrax strain used in the killings matched the anthrax strain in his laboratory. Searches of his home in Frederick, Maryland, turned up "hundreds" of letters similar to those used in the terrorist attacks.

Columnists
7 August 2008
Biosecurity

European biosecurity efforts fall short

Malcolm Dando

The European Commission is on the right path among government institutions in putting issues of biosecurity and biosafety on the public agenda, yet even their efforts demonstrate how far governments have to go.

Opinion
6 August 2008
Nuclear Energy

India's nuclear fuel shortage

Surendra Gadekar

India is suffering from a severe uranium fuel shortage due to a lack of domestic uranium, which has held up its ambitious nuclear energy program. Without uranium fuel, its existing reactors have run at partial capacity producing less electricity and new plants have been delayed repeatedly.

Surendra Gadekar

A well-known Indian nuclear activist and physicist, Gadekar lives in the remote tribal village of Vedchhi near the Kakrapar atomic power plant in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

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