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Pentagon Working on "Human Fear" Weapons

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the smells-like-... dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Animals use pheromones to attract each other for sex, and warn each other of danger. Now, Wired reports, military researchers are working to harness the 'human fear' pheromone to create a scent of terror. The pheromone could lead to smell-based terrorist sensors, and new weapons that rely on 'contagious' stress."

20 of 310 comments (clear)

  1. What could happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I fear it might not work.

    1. Re:What could happen by RDW · · Score: 4, Funny

      'I am not a biologist, so I'll just ask; "Is it reasonable to assume that there even is a fear scent in humans?". Is there any evidence of it's exsitence in closely related species?'

      Well, with that kind of defeatist reality-based reasoning, how can we ever hope to complete the development of the Gay Bomb?:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb

    2. Re:What could happen by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2, Funny

      The odour is produced bacteria found exclusively in Dick Cheney's asscrack.

      Admit it! Even the thought of this incites fear and disgust!

      --
      "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
      Never been known to fail..."
    3. Re:What could happen by pushing-robot · · Score: 3, Funny

      Franklin Relano Doosevelt?

      --
      How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
    4. Re:What could happen by spun · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then why do I get so horny when I sniff your sister's panties? Because my sister has incontinence problems, and you have a shit fetish? OH SNAP!
      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    5. Re:What could happen by suggsjc · · Score: 3, Funny

      Nope, but close. People always wrongly associate this quote. It was actually his son Franklin Relano Doosevelt, Jr.

      So yeah, I realized I had made a mistake just as I was clicking Submit. Why does that happen? You can realize you screwed up the instant that you do it...

      --
      When I have a kid, I want to put him in one of those strollers for twins and then run around the mall looking frantic.
    6. Re:What could happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      That's the smell of blood. They're scared because you are hitting them.

  2. Big fans eh? by Sciros · · Score: 2, Funny

    Looks like *someone* has seen Naked Gun 2 1/2 way too many times.

    --
    I like basketball!!1!
  3. women by EZReady · · Score: 5, Funny

    female pheromones would work for most slashdotters

    --
    EZReady
    1. Re:women by sm62704 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Slashdotter: "I smell a woman. RUN!!!!!"

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
    2. Re:women by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      You can get 2-siders for nearly a dime a dozen.

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  4. Irony by traindirector · · Score: 5, Funny

    You'd almost think that after declaring a war on terror an organization wouldn't use terror against enemies in the most literal way possible...

  5. Amongst our weapons by gardyloo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and pheromones...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise....

  6. The tinfoil hat was comfortable by barakn · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...but now a gas mask?

    --
    "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
    1. Re:The tinfoil hat was comfortable by ppz003 · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...but now a gas mask? Because you are afraid of fear gas...
  7. Oblig. Simpsons by TheSpoom · · Score: 4, Funny

    Marge: What happened? You didn't do anything!

    Dr. Hibbert: Oh, didn't I? [laughs] Nothing dissolves glue better than human sweat. I knew Bart would panic and start perspiring at the sight of this button applicator!

    Bart: Couldn't you have just turned the heat up a little?

    Dr. Hibbert: [sinister] Oh, heavens no! It had to be terror sweat!

    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
  8. Re:Bio warfare? by whopub · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does that not count as biological warfare? Who cares! The whole plan stinks.
  9. Re:That quote about fear by JonWan · · Score: 3, Funny

    "We have nothing to fear except Fear Itself®"

    and spiders

  10. how about a Gay Bomb? by cutecub · · Score: 2, Funny
    ... oh wait.

    They already thought of that.

    What a shiny brave new world we live in!

    -S

  11. Terrorist sensors? by Bones3D_mac · · Score: 2, Funny

    Doesn't this sound vaguely like the Cylon "detector" from Battlestar Galactica? Same crap from the sounds of it. Right up there with those E-meter things the scientologists use to evaluate your thetan levels.

    I wonder if that measurement of the flow rate of ketchup we paid for ever yielded any results...

    --


    8==8 Bones 8==8