|Issue 14.09 - September 2006
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The Best: Science Projects That Scare the #%@! Out of Us
Rants + Raves
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What's faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive? Beams of gold ions slamming into each other at light-speed. Although the thermal release from this collision is a million times hotter than the surface of the sun, scientists at Brookhaven National Lab say this won't create a galaxy-swallowing black hole or fundamentally alter the universe. Probably.
In a Darpa-funded effort to develop the ultimate stealth spy, chips implanted in the brains of blue sharks will enable the creatures' movements to be guided by sonar. What, no lasers on their heads?
Here's an idea: Build an array of 180 antennas in Alaska to beam radio waves at the ionosphere – the upper layer of Earth's atmosphere – creating an electric field that interacts with charged particles. Operated by the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, this disruption can raise the temperature of the ionosphere by as much as 30 percent over a 9- to 40-kilometer radius. It's targeted global warming.
ITER Tokamak Fusion Reactor
This donut-shaped magnetic reactor will ignite a "burning plasma" by 2015. Sounds cool, but to paraphrase one Nobel physicist: The problem with trying to bottle the sun is that we don't know how to make the bottle.
By manipulating the properties of metals on the nanoscale, Defense and Energy Department scientists are figuring out how to make faster and more energetic explosions. The goal? Compact weapons that pack several times the detonative force of even the MOAB (mother of all bombs). Next up: a briefcase nanonuke.
Scientists with the US military are working on an electromagnetic pulse weapon that induces the sensation of pain from a distance. Ultimately, they hope to fine-tune the pulses to control muscles as well. Fantastic: a gun that turns people into puppets writhing in a theater of misery.
Radioactive Scorpion Venom
Synthesize the venom of the deadly yellow Israeli scorpion, attach a radioactive substance called iodine-131, and inject it into patients with inoperable brain cancer. The venom is supposed to deliver the radiation only to tumor cells. Miracle cure or great origin story for a Marvel villain?