by Alan P. Zelicoff

About the author: Alan P. Zelicoff, a physician and physicist, is senior scientist at the Center for National Security and Arms Control at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In ancient Rome, emperors would divine truth by reading the entrails of animals or vanquished foes. The twists and turns of the digestive guts held secrets that only “experts” could see. No self-respecting general would take his legions into battle before seeking the wisdom of the shamans who predicted the battle’s outcome from the appearance of the intestines of chickens and men. It was a brutal approach, and not at all effective. In the end, we all know what happened to the Roman Empire.

Today, under the mandate of the Congress and in the...