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E-Bombs: Technology Update
vaderhelmet writes "'In these media-fueled times, when war is a television spectacle and wiping out large numbers of civilians is generally frowned upon, the perfect weapon would literally stop an enemy in his tracks, yet harm neither hide nor hair. Such a weapon might shut down telecommunications networks, disrupt power supplies, and fry an adversary's countless computers and electronic gadgets, yet still leave buildings, bridges, and highways intact. It would strike with precision, in an instant, and leave behind no trace of where it came from.' (Story from IEEE Spectrum Online)"
would create the perfect shadow environment for good old fashioned guerilla warfare.
It might just be better to leave the lights on.
Bush is in excellent health and does not have a pacemaker. Cheney, on the other hand...
Nice try, but the Geneva Conventions also allows for a certain amount of collateral damage, provided it's not way out of proportion to the military value of the primary target.
Assuming the hospital as collateral damage: Using an e-bomb to disable a PDA would be probably be a violation. Using an e-bomb to disable a tank division would not be.
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
Like that stops anyone
Believe it or not, most modern pacemakers are fairly well shielded against EMP. Most of the problems that were had with people being near microwaves, etc. were with older designs of pacemakers. They have to put the warning signs on microwaves because you never know who has an old pacemaker. However, the amount of old (unipolar lead) pacemakers still around is rather small. Any EMP which damages the new designs is going to make every muscle in your body twitch, and do heart damage to those without pacemakers too.
I'm afraid I don't have a link, but I could refer you to the Report of Task Group 34, from the American Association or Physicists in Medicine, section IV. Don't ask why I have that paper lying around my office - it's a long story. The basic gist is, pacemakers are already encased in a Faraday cage.
Shockingly, we are one of the worst violators
Ummm, you woudn't just drop dead if your pacemaker was disabled. Most people with pacemakers have them to augment their normal SA node pacemeaker, account for skiped beats. Other are combination defibrillators/pacemakers that help quell superventricular tachycardias, or speed up theur hearts during periods of bradycardia.
Very few people walk around with a pacemaker as their soul rhythm generator. These are the people that generally get heart transplants.
It is rumoured that these things have been used a fair number of times in the cities by morons who want to disrupt computer systems etc. The electrically powered type is easy to make, but might take a while to charge up before each pulse. It is quite simple to generate nanosecond pulses of millions of amps, even a spark gap at the focal point of a parabolic antenna, fed by a nice sharp, high voltage pulse from a Marx generator, will do a lot of mischief.
Sadly, the military have abandoned EMP protection, it will be very simple indeed to bring down the current generation of fly-by-wire aircraft for example. Because an EMP pulse is much faster than lightning, with much greater high frequency content, the lightning protection on the critical systems of modern civil aircraft (Airbus and Boeing 777) may also be ineffective.
The only reason why such weapons are not widespread is that the inverse square law makes them fairly useless except against localised targets with high electronic content. It is also quite difficult to prevent some of the energy going where you don't want it, no use driving past Redmond, firing one off in your car as you go, if it takes out your engine management computer, and your brakes, as well as killing Bill's PC.
Here's an extremely good rebuttal to the 'mercury fillings will kill you!' perspective.
Fundamentally, it boils down to exposure levels (both acute and chronic), and absorption. The exposure to mercury vapour from fillings is measurable, but far below environmental exposure levels. Furthermore, the amount of mercury from fillings that's actually absorbed is equally low. Mostly it's sensationalistic reporting trying to draw a connection where none exists.
I've got bad teeth (mostly hereditary) and a mouth full of metal. As they wear out, they're getting replaced with ceramic because that's the fashion these days, and I like having what looks like healthy teeth. I'm not worried about the evil mercury floating around in my system, though.
Now processing gold panning fines, that's another story altogether...
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
The Mercury Amalgam Scam: How Anti-Amalgamists Swindle People outlines the history of the quacks behind the "amalgam is poison" crowd, who make their living turning scientific illiteracy into unnecessary dental procedures.