Science: Reviewing Scud

Ever since cloud-seeding began (TiME, Aug. 28, 1950), the scientific rainmakers have been haunted by a stimulating worry. They feared—or hoped—that their Dry Ice and silver iodide might do more than wring the water out of local masses of susceptible clouds. Rainmaking might possibly start meteorological chain reactions, conjure up violent storms, bring blizzards whistling down from Canada, or even beckon hurricanes off the open sea. This possibility had a military angle: timely cloud-seeding from a safe distance might mess up the weather of an enemy country. Last week Meteorologist Dr. Jerome Spar of New York University laid...