Testing nuclear weapons is banned by treaty, so the only way to ensure our stockpile’s safety and readiness is virtual weapons testing using the world’s fastest supercomputers to crunch lab data.
In 2010 the Pentagon revealed it had a total of 5,113 warheads in its nuclear stockpile, down from a peak of 31,225 at the height of the Cold War in 1967. (more…)
Too busy to vacuum your living room? Let Roomba the robot do it. Don’t want to risk a soldier’s life to disable an explosive? Let a robot do it.
It’s becoming more common to have robots sub in for humans to do dirty or sometimes dangerous work. But researchers are finding that in some cases, people have started to treat robots like pets, friends, or even as an extension of themselves. That raises the question, if a soldier attaches human or animal-like characteristics to a field robot, can it affect how they use the robot? What if they “care” too much about the robot to send it into a dangerous situation? (more…)
October marks the 50th anniversary of of the 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis, when President John F. Kennedy discovered that the Soviet Union was building secret missile bases in Cuba. Forgoing the option of a Cuban invasion or air strikes, Kennedy asked Russian Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev to remove all weapons from the island, and on Oct. 28, 1962, Khrushchev conceded, halting the standoff. Here, Khrushchev’s son, Sergei Khrushchev, visiting professor of Slavic languages at Brown, reflects on the diplomatic lessons.
The perspective of the crisis has changed over time and today the history of the crisis is more focused not on the confrontation, but on cooperation.
The Cuban Missile Crisis showed that two leaders decided not to shoot first, but to think and negotiate with each other. And today that is very unusual, because we think we can only negotiate with friends. Today, we impose unconditional surrender and nobody surrenders unconditionally until fully defeated. (more…)
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland – The Israeli public is wary of launching airstrikes aimed at disrupting Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons, reports a new public opinion poll by researchers at the University of Maryland.
Only 19 of percent of all Israelis favored a go-it-alone strike by Israel, while 42 percent supported a strike only with U.S. backing, and 34 percent opposed any strike. Survey findings for Israeli Jews closely paralleled the results for the entire population of the nation. (more…)
*In a new study, journalism associate professor Shahira Fahmy found the media and presidential agenda had only a limited influence on public concern for the war with Iraq. Public concern influenced how much space former President Bush devoted to issues on his Iraq war agenda, and the press also had some limited influence on the issues stressed by the president.*
Only four months after Sept. 11, 2001, former President Bush identified Iraq as a member of the “axis of evil,” a problem, which if gone unchecked, would endanger the nation’s freedom and security.
As part of the public relations buildup before going to war with Iraq, the former president explained that the Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for more than a decade. He said this is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world. (more…)
The new Polaris gamma ray detector can pinpoint the location of special nuclear materials, such as those used for dirty bombs or nuclear weapons. Image credit: Zhong He
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A table-top gamma-ray detector created at the University of Michigan can not only identify the presence of dangerous nuclear materials, but can pinpoint and show their exact location and type, unlike conventional detectors.
“Other gamma ray detectors can tell you perhaps that nuclear materials are near a building, but with our detector, you can know the materials are in room A, or room B, for example,” said Zhong He, an associate professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences.
“This is the first instrument for this purpose that can give you a real-time image of the radiation source. Not only can we tell you what material is there, but we can tell you where it is, and you can find it and walk towards it.” (more…)
