Today's Guardian has a fascinating story about Dave Dodson and Bob Selden, who were assigned a rather strange duty by the US Army in the 60s - designing a nuclear bomb.

The question the project was designed to answer was a simple one: could a couple of non-experts, with brains but no access to classified research, crack the "nuclear secret"? In the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis, panic had seeped into the arms debate. Only Britain, America, France and the Soviet Union had the bomb; the US military desperately hoped that if the instructions for building it could be kept secret, proliferation - to a fifth country, a sixth country, an "Nth country", hence the project's name - could be averted. Today, the fear is back: with al-Qaida resurgent, North Korea out of control, and nuclear rumours emanating from any number of "rogue states", we cling, at least, to the belief that not just anyone could figure out how to make an atom bomb. The trouble is that, 40 years ago, anyone did.

It's a fascinating story, and one that makes you wonder about many things - if I was assigned that task, could I have achieved it? Is anyone doing similar work at the moment, but for an employer slightly scarier than the US Army? And, when Hollywood inevitably discovers this story and makes a film of it, will they keep it as an interesting drama, or add a few jokes to make Dude, where's my Bomb?