This September 2003 issue of ''Science and Technology Review'' covers the following articles: (1) ''The National Ignition Facility Is Born''; (2) ''The National Ignition Facility Comes to Life'' Over the last 15 years, thousands of Livermore engineers, scientists, and technicians as well as hundreds of industrial partners have worked to bring the National Ignition Facility into being. (3) ''Tracking the Activity of Bacteria Underground'' Using real-time polymerase chain reaction and liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry, researchers at Livermore are gaining knowledge on how bacteria work underground to break down compounds of environmental concern. (4) ''When Every Second Counts--Pathogen Identification in Less Than a Minute'' Livermore has developed a system that can quickly identify airborne pathogens such as anthrax. (5) ''Portable Radiation Detector Provides Laboratory-Scale Precision in the Field'' A team of Livermore physicists and engineers has developed a handheld, mechanically cooled germanium detector designed to identify radioisotopes.