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Beam It Down

October 1997

The sky will soon fill with low-orbiting satellites providing communications links to every point on earth. We should press these fleets into double duty as solar energy collectors that relay uninterrupted beams of nonpolluting electrical power to earth.

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Features

  • Categorized in 17032

    A Study in Complexity

    A pioneer inn the field of complexity theory and creator of the software program Mathematica, Steven Wolfram now claims his secret, after-hours computer experiments will reinvent the field of physics. His colleagues think he just might pull it off.
  • Categorized in 17032

    New Hope in the Minefields

    Emerging technologies can speed the removal of the millions of burried landmines that continue to kill and maim civilians in more than 60 countries.
  • Can free access to the Internet enhance the lives of people in poor communities? An experimental system in East Austin, Texas, is showing the way.
  • Detractors trash recycling as unnecessary and too much bother. But these conclusions are garbage, say two leading advocates, because they are based on tainted assumptions.

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