Brian Gongol

A retrospective on an old newspaper clipping from 1958 shows how forecasts about the future were tempered dramatically by the threat of nuclear annihilation. Planning and forecasting can be ridiculous games if you can't predict the influence of individuals like Gorbachev and Walesa.

Dakotas, Nebraska, Montana, and Wyoming are in profoundly bad shape. They aren't even going to have enough corn to re-decorate the Corn Palace.

Japanese researchers have gotten a silicon micromotor to turn using bacteria to do the work. There's some thought these could be used to deliver tiny amounts of medication using micropumps, among other applications.

Women account for 58% of total undergraduates -- that's way out of whack with their representation in the population. The long-term health of the economy depends upon sending as many future workers as possible on to higher education.

