Society
A Modular-Incremental Approach: Verification for Biological Weapons
A conversation with the winning team of the Sixth Annual Next Generation for Biosecurity Competition
A Destructive Duality
In December of 1942, the first controlled nuclear chain reaction experiment was successfully conducted at the University of Chicago by Enrico Fermi. Less than three years later in July of 1945, the first atomic device was tested in New Mexico as a part of the Manhattan Project. Three weeks later, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The discovery and implementation of nuclear technology have brought about a lot of good in the 21st century. Nuclear reactors provide a low-carbon energy source and power ships that have to be at sea for long durations like submarines and aircraft carriers. Nuclear medicine combines radiopharmaceuticals and diagnostic technologies like a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to give physicians a much better assessment of patients' hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys. But for most people, nuclear technology is exceptionally difficult to separate from its destructive introduction in wartime. The same can be said about the duality of the chemical precursors for chemical weapons.
