Category: Technology

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Photo Courtesy of Lockheed Corp.

America’s Weapons Makers and How They Grew

The American weapons industry is over the crest of another roller-coaster ride of federal funding, after an eight-year climb to unprecedented spending for war in peacetime. Though the Presidential candidates have made little commotion about what happens next, the issue of money for the military

Cornell University professor James Gillett uses a terrestrial microcosm chamber for experiments involving genetic engineering. Photo courtesy of Cornell University News.

How Government Regulates a Life

The average new drug costs $80 million to develop and another $40 million to safety test before it passes federal scrutiny and reaches the market. A new agricultural chemical costs about $70 million to develop and $15 million to safety test. In contrast, a seed

Beetles and wasps battle plant lice in artificial worlds created by insect ecologist David Pimentel. (Photos courtesy Cornell University News).

How Will New Genes Behave – Like Microbial Poodles or Gypsy Moths?

Leading the way into the back room of his Cornell University laboratory, insect ecologist David Pimentel taps at the plexiglas walls of a chamber the size of a dishwasher. Inside this giant terrarium. Sucking obliviously at the stems of cowpeas are crowds of aphids, which

AGS scientist Julie Lindemann sprays Frostban on strawberry plants in the first approved release of genetically engineered organisms.

Testing The Future

In the early morning darkness last April 24, guided by the light from a row of car headlights, a dozen people swarmed over a strawberry patch the size of two tennis courts, setting out hundreds of plastic Petri dishes and mounting equipment on steel towers.

Parsing a sentence with a transition network is like playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

Solving the Problem of Meaning

On July 21, 1969, with the usual fanfare accorded to conquering heroes, the Apollo 11 astronauts returned to earth, leaving behind a plastic American flag, which stood unwaving in the airless desolation of the lunar terrain. With them they brought 58 pounds of moon rocks,