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A calculation in this issue shows X-ray lasers might be feasible, and points to horrendous difficulties ahead. But the case for putting and end to the search for ballistic missile defences rests elsewhere.
A newly published journal offers a prospect of what may be instore when people are persuaded of the folly of making hard copies so that journals can turn them back again into binary signals.
One component of the US Strategic Defense Initiative is the nuclear-explosion-pumped X-ray laser. Although there are many obstacles to its development, such a weapon is technically feasible.
This week's New on the Market feature ends with a glimpse of several of the products on display at next week's VIIth International Congress of Virology meeting in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
