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THE BRAINCHILD OF A HANDFUL of academics, free-thinking State Department bureaucrats, and public intellectuals in the 1970s, 'Track II' diplomacy grew out of the observation that private individuals, meeting unofficially, [...]

THE FIRST FRENCH missiles that streaked over Benghazi in March were more than the beginning of the end for Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi--they were also the first real-world test of [...]

Ever since the first warrior picked up a wooden stick in imitation of a sword, the line between war and entertainment has been decidedly blurry. Military training in ancient Greece [...]

NEXT YEAR MARKS THE 50TH BIRTHDAY of the first commercially produced silicon microchip, a device that has arguably reordered society more profoundly than any invention since the internal combustion engine. [...]

WHEN MICHAEL BARRATT, A NASA FLIGHT SURGEON, arrived at the Russian cosmonaut training facility at Star City in 1993, the space program that once lofted Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin into [...]

'Seattle has Bill,' Thomas Friedman once wrote. 'Bangalore has Nandan.' The co-founder of Infosys--the Indian company that made 'outsourcing' a household word--famously gave Friedman the central conceit for The World [...]

The article discusses the history of the United States' dependence on foreign oil despite repeated presidential promises for U.S. energy independence, beginning with the drilling of the world's first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Key events mentioned in the article include the U.S. transition to net oil importer in 1970, the decline of low cost energy in 1972, and the U.S. importing more oil than it produces for the first time in 1994. The author also charts China's and the European Union's increased reliance on oil imports. Events associated with reforms to U.S. energy policy are also detailed.

The article discusses Moore's Law, a principle defined by Intel microchip company co-founder Gordon Moore regarding the exponential growth of technology. It argues that even though Moore's Law has been applicable to computer technology, and to the development of microchip processors in particular, it is unrealistic to use the same model for business growth in industries related to clean-energy, agriculture, and electric cars. It also presents comments from technology historian Patrick McCray regarding the evolution of Moore's Law, discusses how economic growth for entrepreneurs in the computer industry in Silicon Valley led to the application of Moore's Law in other industries, and describes possible problems associated with the rapid growth of the economies of India and China.

The article reports that the retirement of the U.S. Space Shuttle program has left no way for astronauts to get to and from the International Space Station other than Russian Soyuz rockets. The U.S. National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) plans to spend its budget on long-range plans such as manned missions to the moons of Mars, while saving billions of dollars by outsourcing low Earth orbit travel to the Russians. Although the Soyuz is cheaper and older than the Space Shuttle, it also has a better safety record. INSET: Who's Got the Right Stuff?.