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Phallocentric/heteronormative assumptions get in the way of amateur attempts to reconstruct the first atomic bombs (Samuels, “Atomic John,” New Yorker, 15 Dec ’08):

The source of the error, Coster-Mullen recognized, was an assumption that every (male) researcher who studied the subject had made about the relation between projectile and target. These scholars had apparently been unable to conceive of an arrangement other than a “missionary position” bomb, in which a solid male projectile penetrated a vessel-like female target. But Coster-Mullen realized that a female-superior arrangement—in which a hollow projectile slammed down on top of a stationary cylinder of highly enriched uranium—yielded the correct size and mass.

Interesting conceptual problem for al-Qaeda et al.