THE relationship between science and the military goes back a long way. Even Galileo and Leonardo da Vinci had their ideas pilfered by military strategists - Galileo's telescopes, da Vinci's submarines, catapults and parachutes. But the relationship really took off with the second world war, when weapons research became a primary scientific aim in industrialised countries.

At the height of the cold war, as much as 40 per cent of R&D effort worldwide was devoted to military technology. Today's "war on terror" has given the field an added boost: in 2003, global military spending rose for the first time since the end of the cold war, to $956 billion. The figure for 2004 is likely to be in excess of $1 trillion.

Surely we have our priorities mixed up. As the terrorist attacks of 9/11 demonstrated, security is not just about the strength of military forces or advanced weapons systems. ...