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Can university subjects reveal terrorists in the making?

By Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog

10 June 2009

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

How can we spot future terrorists? There may be clues in the subjects they study

(Image: Gaza Press / Rex Features)

Editorial: Seeking out the engineers of terror

WHO becomes a terrorist? An MI5 report leaked to London newspaper The Guardian in August 2008 concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in the UK because there is “no single pathway to violent extremism” and that “it is not possible to draw up a typical profile of the ‘British terrorist’ as most are ‘demographically unremarkable'”.

The extraordinary lengths the German authorities went to…

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