Comments on Multimode Directed Energy Armament System
I suppose calling this a 'ray gun' might be going too far, since I doubt it's portable. With proper miniaturization, maybe. (Read
the complete story)
"Reminds me of the arc-throwers in Timothy Zahn's Cobras Two. The enhanced soldiers fingertip lasers could ionize a path in the air and throw a hefty arc over it. This seems like a beefed up version of the "air taser" designed for vehicles and IED's. "
(AJ Dual 4/27/2009 5:51:06 PM)
"Yeah, same here. I thought there was an article on here earlier about research using lasers to "guide" lightning, but I couldn't find it. I know I've seen it elsewhere, tho, like Project Rho. (tho the Arc-Throwers were part of the standard COBRA design, not just for the enhanced ones. the experimental one, in the third book, was a taser/stun-gun varient of it)"
(Ashley 4/28/2009 2:13:06 PM)
"AJ, Ashley - You're right, I looked but couldn't find it. Then, spurred on to greater effort by your text perplexity, I googled obsessively - and I think I found it. The story was about the Portal Denial System Electrolaser Intruder-Zapper.
See also Ashley's extensive comments on the Arc Thrower technology in these comments to an earlier article."
(Bill Christensen 4/28/2009 2:44:46 PM)
""Now that I think about it, you might have done an article on this, instead: http://www.lightning.ece.ufl.edu/ Where I'm currently finding stuff about this is on Project Rho: http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3l.html#particlebeam and the link it leads to: http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/195.htm""
(Ashley 4/29/2009 4:17:38 PM)
Humanoid Robots Building Humanoid Robots
''Pardon me, Struthers,' he broke in suddenly... 'haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?''
Stratospheric Solar Geoengineering From Harvard
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'