What would Dr. Evil do with a supercomputer, a giant laser, and a 30-meter deformable mirror? Hold the planet for ransom, of course. The billion-dollar Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project, on the other hand, will assemble these components into a state-of-the-art optical telescope on the lip of a giant volcano and peer into the depths of space and time. (Astronomers. No ambition.)