# Gamma-ray weapons - the next arms race?



## Brian G Turner (Aug 13, 2003)

Read a distubring report on the New Scientist website.

Essentially, there's a way of forcing a mass erlease of energy - in the form of a blast of gamma-rays - and it doesn't involve nuclear fission of fusion.

But, if I may emphasis a quote:

*"One gram of fully charged hafnium isomer could store more energy than 50 kilograms of TNT."*

That's powerful stuff.

Here's the report:

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994049



> *Gamma-ray weapons could trigger next arms race
> *
> An exotic kind of nuclear explosive being developed by the US Department of Defense could blur the critical distinction between conventional and nuclear weapons. The work has also raised fears that weapons based on this technology could trigger the next arms race.
> 
> ...


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## Foxbat (Aug 13, 2003)

What worries me is: Who is the enemy?
Surely the nuclear arsenals in place are large enough to deter rogue states. Not only that, if some madman is going to use nukes anyway, then a deterrent becomes an irrelevance.
Sometimes I feel we should spend more time trying to save ourselves from the ecological mess we're in rather than finding new ways to destroy ourselves. 
Yes. I know it's an old and cliched sentiment but, sadly, still very relevant


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## littlemissattitude (Aug 15, 2003)

I agree that MAD (mutually assured destruction) is completely irrelevant in a world where we have terrorists who think martyrdom is a good thing.  Now, understand, I'm not just talking about Muslim extremists.  There is a certain subset of Christian fundamentalists who believe it is their job to hasten Armageddon so that the Second Coming will occur all the sooner.  If I recall correctly, Israel kicked a whole bunch of them out of their country around the time the century turned because they were afraid they were going to try something stupid for Y2K.


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## Brian G Turner (Aug 15, 2003)

It's probably an evolutionary argument that we need to seek an enemey. After all, if we developed from apes who had to watch out from being predated upon, we were always looknig out for danger in the unknown - the places we cannot see. Therefore the "enemy" will always lurk in the unknown, in the places we cannot see. Terrorism plays precisely on this aspect. Military strategy attempts to. 

2 quick cents.


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