Bang on target

THE physicists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are noted for their explosions. Some of the deadliest weapons on the planet have emanated from their workshops. This summer, in the nearby Ancho Canyon, these fearsome skills will be bent to more peaceful aims. James Brooks, of Florida State University, and his collaborators from America, Russia and Japan will be probing how materials conduct electricity in extreme conditions--so extreme that the materials, and most of the experimental apparatus, will be utterly destroyed in the process.