Last September over 130 countries signed the Critical Test Ban
Treaty (CTBT) completely prohibiting all explosions nuclear, anywhere on
the planet. But for the treaty to be effective, its watchdogs need to be
so good that any country considering a test on the sly will hold back out
of fear of being caught. That means that an accurate-and absolutely dependable-network
of monitors.
And so Thorne Lay, a seismologist at the University of California, Santa
Cruz, and other CTBT scientists around the world are rewriting the book
on bomb-spotting. Lay is chairing a US National Research Council panel appraising
further research needed to properly enforce the ban, while international
teams of scientists interlock stations into a sentinel that will stand guard
over the planet, watching for covert blasts. |