What Could Possibly Go Wrong: An Internet "Off" Switch
The last time someone could shut down the Internet was probably in 1969, when it consisted of two computers. But in recent years, concerned with the possibility of a âcyberattack,â Congress has...
View ArticleWhat Could Possibly Go Wrong: Genetically-Modified Mosquitoes
As carriers for diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever, mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures on the planet, responsible for millions of human deaths every year. And as the planet...
View ArticleWhat Could Possibly Go Wrong: Deep-Drilling a Supervolcano
When Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79, the people around it had little warning, and more than 10,000 of them died as a result. Bad as that was, an eruption of neighboring Campi Flegrei could be worse. …
View ArticleWhat Could Possibly Go Wrong: Blotting Out the Sun
Engineering the atmosphere to forestall the worst results of global warming was once considered too hubristic to seriously contemplate. The grim prospects for passing an international climate-change...
View ArticleWhat Could Possibly Go Wrong: Industrial Cyber-Sabotage
Computers already do so much of our work that it seems natural to let them take care of our sabotage, too. This might have been the line of thinking that led to Stuxnet, the first known malware worm...
View ArticleWhat Could Possibly Go Wrong: Flying Hummers
Last April, Darpa proposed a novel solution to the problem of IED-strewn roads and otherwise impassable landscapes in Afghanistan and elsewhere: fly over them. …
View ArticleWhat Could Possibly Go Wrong: Immortal Micro-Organisms
Leave it to Darpa, the Pentagon's advanced-research arm, to bring synthetic biology to a new level of creepiness. For 2011, Darpa has dedicated $6 million to a new program called BioDesign, which...
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