Hour One: National Missile Defense / Ancient Cannibalism

Last week, President Clinton announced in a speech at Georgetown University that he would postpone deployment of a proposed national missile defense system. The decision not to deploy leaves any action on the future of the system in the hands of the next administration.

NMD interceptor test launch. BMDO image.

"I simply cannot conclude with the information I have today that we have enough confidence in the technology, and the operational effectiveness of the entire NMD system, to move forward to deployment," Clinton said.

But what are the technological issues at stake? What challenges would such a defense system have to overcome -- and how can such a system be tested before it is put into practice? On this hour of Science Friday, we'll talk about the technological issues behind anti-missile technology, and about some of the different systems that have been proposed.

Plus - a report published this week in the journal Nature may settle once and for all a contentious debate in the world of anthropology. Earlier findings of burned, cracked, and scraped human bones in an ancient Puebloan settlement in the American southwest had suggested that a few incidents of cannibalism took place sometime between 1150 and 1200 AD. Now, biochemical analysis of residue in pots and of material in human feces found at one site has found proteins that are present only in human muscle tissue -- proof that meat from humans was actually cooked and consumed. Other evidence suggests that the meal may have taken place during a time of extreme starvation. We'll talk about the research on the Anasazi settlement with one of the authors of the study.

From the very old, to the not-yet-built... we'll talk about it all this hour on Science Friday.

Listen to this program in RealAudio!

Guests:

Theodore Postol
Professor of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts

K. Scott McMahon
Defense Policy Analyst
Veridian Pacific-Sierra Research
Arlington, Virginia

David Tanks
Senior Defense Analyst
Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis
Washington, DC

Brian Billman
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Books/Articles Discussed:

"Pursuit of the Shield : The U.S. Quest for Limited Ballistic Missile Defense" by K. Scott McMahon. University Press of America, 1997. "Biochemical evidence of cannibalism at a prehistoric Puebloan site in southwestern Colorado" by Richard A. Marlar, Banks L. Leonard, Brian R. Billman, Patricia M. Lambert, and Jennifer E. Marlar. Nature, 407, 74 - 78 (2000). (find more SciFri books here)

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Related Links:
National Missile Defense - BMDO
History of BMDO
"Welch Report" _ Independent Review Team Assessment
DefenseLINK News: Special Briefing Regarding the National Missile Defense Program Clinton statement on NMD postponement
White House fact sheet on NMD program
NORAD--North American Aerospace Defense Command
Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis

Colorado Archaeology Network

Produced By: Charles Bergquist