Gallery: Scary Science

Hm... pathetic that pure fusion research funding was banned in '93 due to fear. Also pathetic the many ways in which humans miss use their technology. But cyborg bugs? Are you serious? And emotional recognition software... I have another urge to achieve escape velocity...

Pure proton-boron fusion may be under 5 years away. Focusfusion.org is following the Lawrenceville Plasma Physics R&D. Weaponizing its microburst pulsed fusion system seems implausible, tho'. The goal is to design generators that sell and produce power at 1/20 of today's best retail costs.

Banning doesn't stop determined people. We have plenty of criminals that would be willing to take the risk.

Duct tape is like the Force - it has a Light side, a Dark side, and it holds the universe together. -- Carl Zweiberg

The smile police thing is just stupid. The thought of being questioned or detained for a suspicious smile is just...stupid. That's the only word I can think of to describe it. What about faking a smile, how hard is that? Just stupid.

Suitcase Nukes: The key to weaponizing such devices is the chain reaction. In order to sustain fusion reactions in energy production, some external source of energy must be supplied to force nuclei to fuse. Even the debunked cold-fusion experiment of the eighties could not have been weaponized -- had it been a real observation. It was supposedly a "slow" reaction. I would think that a "suitcase" fusion reactor would have to be of the slow reaction kind. There are far too many, readily available, old and current technologies that can be used to inflict great damage and death to keep me awake at night.

My Worry Meter: Low

Mars Attacks: There is mounting evidence that complex organic molecules exist in space. Also, that Mars may have once had water and possibly microbial life very early in its existence. So, in theory, the potential for an extraterrestrially originated pandemic is plausible.

My Worry Meter: Medium

Bugs of War: Whoda thunk that connecting millions of computers in a global network could some day threaten global, fiscal calamity by cyber-terrorists? Just because the "tiny cyborgs aren’t yet a threat to ... your privacy" doesn't mean they won't some day. Very likely sooner than one thinks. The privacy concern is quite real and the threat does not necessarily need to come solely from governments. Remember the story of the man who was spying on and stalking his ex-wife by hiding a GPS capable cell phone inside the dashboard of her car?

My Worry Meter: High

Drug Thy Enemy: "You don’t have to worry about a used-car dealer spraying you with oxytocin." My take: Let them. When discovered, I'll sue for hundreds of times more than whatever price they screwed me over some car.

My Worry Meter: Medium-Low

Smile Police: You need technology to know when someone is not in a "good mood"? Millions of years of evolution doesn't already give us that ability already? As for "Soon even your living room will evaluate you"; Why do you think I put a towel over the cable box?

My Worry Meter: Very Low

I wonder if the Martian microbes are suffering from "Earth Attack." I think they try to sterilize the Mars probes before they send them, but I would not be surprised if one day we found Earth bacteria invading the soil near our landers.

@trireme~

What you have said is close to impossible. And as far as I'm concerned, never going to happen. We sterilize our probes so well, that it would be a wonder how any thing more than the probe actually got in space. If something on the probe got in space, it would burn up in the atmosphere of mars anyway. And if it didn't burn? Then we should be looking away from the sky and at whatever is totally ruining our data from mars, not to mention what damage it could do to our people. It could be almost indescribable how much pain and suffering a virus that tough would be. Luckily, the closest thing to that is influenza, and that will burn up on Mars' atmosphere.

This is a little scary here. Just thinking about making our 'understanding' of nuclear bombs greater makes me bit uneasy. Not that we don't have enough trouble with buclear weapons as it is, but now we're going to further our knowledge and understanding of the weapons? just a tad bit dangerous I believe. Then again, better we learn no then learn later after some other's bomb has hit.

THE most scary trend at the moment you didn't mention at all:
Computers, which develop other computers.

Basically, this will lead to robots with a brain of their own, just like in every other SciFi flic of late.

But seriously, once we pass the point where scientists can no longer fully comprehend what they develop, we are getting on icy slopes ...

"Learn to Live & Live to Learn"
Alexander von Humboldt

ErinMorbid, please tell me how much "trouble" we have with nuclear bombs, as far as I am concerned nuclear knowledge and understanding leads us to easy, cheap power.

As to learning now rather than later that nuclear bombs are dangerous, the chances of any country on earth using nuclear arms is preposterous.

You think any country on earth would be okay with another one using nuclear weapons? They tear up the atmosphere, scatter irradiated particles, and would turn whatever country that dropped the nuke into a new U.S., or maybe U.N. colony, with the whole country being torn in half. Any gov't or illegal group would cease to exist so quickly they wouldn't even learn whether their nuke went off.

just wait until antimatter is developed...goodbye world

I'm worried we will develop perfect concepts on concepts, build a perfect society no one will object, flawlessly designed and run by machines and than realize our fundamental thinking was wrong. But than it will be to late, plants and animals will be gone and all other horrors will become possible. Even if we would finally understand nature and expand into space, there will be no other spices to help us on the way. Because if we would know what we want, more people and other beings around the planet would live better already.
We wouldn't be so scared and advance much faster if no one would be enemy to other. Today there's enough other problems and challenges to deal with, to make this world worth living again.

There seems to be a slight strain of Eco-worrior in some of the reports on popsci. I want my children to live in star treck not flinstones!

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TonyMann;
Hey, nice typo! Eco-warrior + Eco-worrier = Eco-worrior. I like it!

You can take existing nuclear waste that is generated by existing thermonuclear reactors and reconstitute it for "fast" nuclear reactors. It depends on the definition. Nuclear energy is in fact renewable. Yet this nucelar issue has become an effective political tool and continues today to be a huge debate all based on misinformation. The pattern is inconsistent and shows no connection.
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Some of these are really scary especially the one about nuclear weapons, but I hope the scientists are smart enough to not let that happen. Anyway I think the experiment with the bugs is awesome and I will share this post with my friends.
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O.K. seriously where do experimenters come up with stuff like this? It would be nice if the nuclear weapons one doesn't take place. And a Mars Attack?.. Maybe sometime in the future but probably not in my lifetime.

Still though, these are interesting little weird experiments that are always good to read about. It can really open up your imagination.

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Pure Fusion reactions is boon on one hand and disgrace on another side. It is very difficult to keep the research and findings for energy purposes intact as people and countries having vested interest will try to exploit the same for weapon development and destruction. Irrespective of whether the research is fruitful or not it needs to be banned immediately.

The article seems to throw awareness of the past and current facts and leaves the reader to judge.

Suitcase-size fusion nukes? Suitcase-sized fission nukes have been around for quite a while. I reckon they make a big enough bang by themselves. If you want to terrorize people, there's no need to invent new technologies. Everything you need already exists.

Naoise O Rourke,
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This is all a little over the top.

Joseph P
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Interesting info, do you know where I can find similar information? I’ve been trying to find out a little more about this kind of stuff, thanks for sharing it.

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I really find the Drug Thy Enemy the scariest one. The Smile Police is just hilarious. How can they tell if someone's smile is suspicious anyway? They could just have been born with those features.
Will www.cityvilledomination.org