I have an invitation for our nation's top defense officials, those responsible for the development of our current missile defense effort (now called NMD, for "national missile defense"). But before we get there, let me describe the context for this invitation, which is established in two dramatic articles in this issue of Technology Review.

Both articles focus on a controversy over missile defense that has an MIT professor at its center. Theodore Postol, professor of science, technology and national security, is a prickly, fractious man who irritates and accuses almost everyone who crosses his path, as contributing writer Gary Taubes acknowledges in his article "Postol vs. the Pentagon," which begins on page 52 of this issue. There's no question that Ted Postol's "people skills," as the jargon has it, are not his strong suit.