It won't be long now, with Science on his trail ...

One of the most important political questions of our time is: Where is Osama bin Laden?

We use biogeographic theories associated with the distribution of life and extinction (distance-decay theory, island biogeography theory, and life history characteristics) and remote sensing data (Landsat ETM+, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Defense Meteorological Satellite, QuickBird) over three spatial scales (global, regional, local) to identify where bin Laden is most probably currently located.

We believe that our work involves the first scientific approach to establishing his current location. The methods are repeatable and can be updated with new information obtained from the US intelligence community.

The authors are from the same department as Jared Diamond. Last September, we discussed their work on Iraq. Decius wrote:

This raises a number of questions that are likely to be promptly ignored.

From 2006:

The best way to fight terrorists is to go at it not like G-men, with two-year assignments and query letters to the staff attorneys, but the way the terrorists do, with fury and the conviction that history will turn on the decisions you make -- as an obsession and as a life style.

From 2008:

It didn’t take long to understand why so many soldiers were taking antidepressants.