See other Science/Tech Articles
Title: Invention: The riot slimer (Researchers Develop Gun That Slimes Protestors...)
Source:
New Scientist
URL Source: http://www.newscientisttech.com/art ... invention-the-riot-slimer.html
Published: May 3, 2006
Author: Barry Fox
Post Date: 2006-05-03 10:24:50 by Zipporah
Keywords: None
Views: 102
Comments: 4
For over 30 years, Barry Fox has trawled through the world's weird and wonderful patent applications, uncovering the most exciting, bizarre or even terrifying new ideas. His column, Invention, is exclusively online. Scroll down for a roundup of previous Invention articles. Rioters could soon be in for a slippery surprise. Researchers at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, US, are working on a new non-lethal weapon that could quite literally bring them to their knees – by sliming them. The institute has developed a super-slimy substance. When fired at an unruly mob it causes rioters to simply slip over. Riot police or troops would wear a back pack with three cylinders – one containing compressed air, another filled with plain water and a third containing a supply of very dry, finely ground, polyacrylamide powder. A nozzle, resembling a shower head, would blasts two separate jets, containing the water and the polymer powder, in the general direction of an ugly crowd. As the two jets mix in the air, after clearing the nozzle, they create a slimy mixture that covers the ground and causes everyone in the area to fall down. Even vehicles should be unable to get a grip on the goo, the patent says. And because the gel is non-toxic, it should cause no permanent harm, besides a few bruised bottoms, that is. Read the full patent here. Gene therapy relies on getting genetic material into living cells. An electric field can drag this material through a cell wall, but this often kills the cell in the process. Now two researchers based in Massachusetts, US, have discovered that a short shock of sound can do the same trick, while causing less cell damage. The technique is described in a patent filed by Thomas Flotte and Apostolos Doukas. In experiments, blood cells were placed over a bed of gelatin containing the genetic material to be transferred. The blood cells and gelatin were all placed within a container a few centimetres wide, and a sheet of black polystyrene was positioned beneath the container. Then a powerful ruby laser was shone on the polystyrene for a few nanoseconds. This sudden heating makes the polystyrene sheet contort violently, sending an acoustic shock wave through the gelatin. This, in turn, briefly turns the blood-cell walls to 'jelly', making them permeable and allowing genetic material to pass inside. Around one-quarter of the target blood cells took up molecules of genetic material, and only 1% of cells died in the process, the patent claims. The inventors suggest that eventually fibre-optic shockwave generators could be placed inside catheters inserted into blood vessels for real-time gene therapy. Read the full patent, here. In the US alone, 300,000 cases of concussion are caused by contact sports like American football and hockey every year. This is hardly surprising since head-on impacts can generate forces comparable to a car crash. The effect can also be cumulative, building up over the course of a game, but it remains difficult to monitor every player for the risk of such a snowballing injury. So the US National Institute of Health has been developing of a system that monitors the head movement of every player in a football game, and feeds data to a pitch-side computer. Each player's helmet would have a built-in accelerometer and a radio that continually transmits impact measurements, along with a player's shirt number, to a pitch-side receiver. A connected computer would keep track of impacts and sound an alarm when a player logs too many violent hits. This player could then be called in for a rest and a medical check up. The patent even suggests that the transmitted signal could be encrypted to prevent the opposing team from knowing which of their opposing players are going groggy. Read the full patent, here. Apple's all-seeing screen, the TV-advert enforcer here, The wing-sprouting drone, the drink-driver arm scanner, laser spark plugs, remote-controlled implants,the "I've been shot" gun, the snore zapper, the guitar phone, explosive-eating fungus, viper vision, exploding ink, the moody media player, the spy-diver killer, preventing in-flight interference, the inkjet-printer pen, sonic watermarks, the McDownload, hot-air plane, landmine arrows, soldiers obeying odours, coffee beer, wall-beating bugging, eyeball electronics, phone jolts, personal crash alarm, talking tooth, shark shocker, midnight call-foiler, burning bullets, a music lover's dream, magic wand for gamers, the phantom car, phone-bomb hijacking, shocking airport scans, old tyres to printer ink and eye-tracking displays.
Riot slimer
Acoustic gene therapy
Helmet shock sensor
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Zipporah (#0)
Thanks for all the new patents' information.
I saw this pic on Huffington Post..in reference to this story, thought it amusing: "The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion." Frederick Douglass
LOL! Yes!
"The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion." Frederick Douglass
Better slimed than tazed.
#2. To: lodwick (#1)
Better slimed than tazed.
#3. To: Zipporah (#2)
Ghostbusters?
#4. To: lodwick (#3)
Ghostbusters?
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest