From a tractor beam to a zombie gun, here are 10 sci-fi weapons that actually exist…
10.
Freeze Ray
It used to be that you’d watch a sci-fi movie with a freeze ray and think “Yeah,
that’s never gonna happen.”
Lasers are hot, right?
Where are scientists going to get a cold ray from?
Well put that thought on ice because a team from the University of Washington has developed
what is to all intents and purposes a real life freeze ray!
The secret lies in tiny crystals contained in liquid, or ‘nano crystals’.
By targeting these with a laser, points of light were reflected that cooled down small
areas inside the liquid.
This amazing breakthrough is going to be expanded upon to tackle issues like computers overheating.
Of course, this technology has even more important applications, such as enabling experts to
study cells by slowing them down with the light pointing system, or ‘point cool’
as it’s known.
But that’s not exciting enough is it?
We wanna see planes brought down by icy blasts and torpedoes frozen in mid air!
Because, why not??
It might be stupid and dangerous actually.
Though it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing stuff like that, right?
9.
Tracer Pulse Gun
You may have heard of Overwatch, the smash hit shooter game.
The character of Tracer is associated with a futuristic weapon called a pulse pistol,
which seems to be the stuff of pure fantasy… but it turns out you can get one of these
without being a digitally enhanced character!
This thing exists in real life!
LaserGadgets is behind the Tracer Pulse Gun’s development.
The YouTuber has made a big splash bringing these fantasy firearms to life, and also other
cool things such as a Death Star, presumably not full size.
The real life pulse gun has been used to perform devastating feats like… well, pop a few
balloons.
However it can also make fabric burst into flames, making it a pretty dangerous thing
to carry around.
And definitely don’t keep it in your pocket.
It isn’t exactly like the Overwatch version but I think you’ll agree it’s pretty close.
This thing could wreak some serious havok!
And now for number 8 but first if you are new here welcome and be sure to subscribe
before you leave!
8.
Vomit Gun
All this talk of guns and violence may make some of you feel a little queasy.
You might want to skip ahead if you have a sensitive stomach.
This one will make you want to hurl.
Not only that, you will actually hurl, as that’s what it’s designed to do.
It’s a puke ray!
Also known as the “Sick Stick”.
Crazy, huh?
If you don’t want to call it that, its official title is ‘LED Incapacitator’.
The US government spent a million bucks developing a weird weapon that would induce extreme dizziness
and disorientation in the intended target.
AKA people.
Rather than bullets, the gun relies on emitting light diodes rapidly, and theoretically the
effect will make you nauseous and want to vomit.
That’s pretty icky but effective on the battlefield we would imagine.
Want to hear something else that’ll put your stomach in a knot?
In 2009, Hardware Hackers figured they could make their own version of the puke ray gun
for cheaper.
Like for only $250.
Don’t get any ideas!!
Plus there’s no guarantee it works, but the military version doesn’t either.
I’m kind of dreading where this technology will go next.
Looks like the future of weaponry is trying to cause epileptic seizures, nausea, and vomiting.
What will be next?
Make your enemy get diabetes on the battlefield?
7.
Digital Revolver
A digital revolver is a kind of ‘smart gun’.
It was created in 2006 by Armatrix LLC, a weapons manufacturer in Germany.
The idea behind it is that only the designated owner can actually fire the gun.
If you think the concept sounds familiar, then you probably saw a version of it in the
2012 Bond movie Skyfall.
Armatrix linked the gun to a special watch powered by RFID tech, which stands for Radio
Frequency Identification.
This cool weapon didn’t catch on, and there’s a surprising reason for that.
Believe it or not, gun owners had an issue with smart guns!
They felt the guns were a threat to Second Amendment rights.
People at the company even received death threats over them.
The makers are now trying another model, the iP9 9mm semi-automatic pistol that will have
a fingerprint reader instead of a watch, and should be available soon.
They will cost about $1,365 and there is reportedly interest in this from the police.
There might be some more political uproar because the NRA is worried this technology
might become mandatory for all guns in the future.
6.
Thunder Generator
It sounds pretty dramatic but the Thunder Generator doesn’t generate actual thunder.
What it does generate is the next best thing… shock waves.
The story behind this powerful sci-fi weapon is unusual and just goes to show that anything
can be used in the field of combat if you put your mind to it!
The Generator started off life down on the farm as a bird scarer.
It sent out shock waves delivered by an explosion involving cooking gas, air and liquid petrol.
Company PDT Argo were happy just using it for agriculture but then the folks at ArmyTec
stepped in.
If it can scare away birds, it could scare away something bigger.
Their modifications to the original design increased the shockwaves so it could blast
people from a distance.
It can stun people from 30-100 meters away but if someone is closer, it could cause serious
damage.
The effect is supposed to be like a giant taser and is apparently constructed with crowds
in mind.
It is declared to be non-lethal but it could be potentially fatal.
The closer you get to the action, the more likely you are to wind up in hospital or worse.
The Thunder Generator isn’t intended to kill people but like all things that cause
harm it’s possible someone could die from exposure to the full force of these violent
shock waves!
Perfect for the zombie apocalypse, but pretty scary for the rest of us.
5.
Stuxnet
Stuxnet is considered the “World’s First Digital Weapon”.
These days we’re used to stories about viruses that can take over machines, but the very
first time that happened on an epic scale was back in 2010.
A bug by the name of Stuxnet was jointly devised by the US and Israeli governments.
Seeing the potential of such a digital weapon, they turned it on Iran.
Stuxnet wreaked havoc with Natanz, an Iranian nuclear facility, where it interfered with
the computers and actually busted the machinery.
The really sneaky thing was that the bug was simultaneously giving good readings to the
facility workers.
When they checked the state of their centrifuges, they got a major shock!
The Americans named this campaign “Operation Olympic Games”.
It went on for several years and finally got out of control when changes made to Stuxnet
by the Israelis led to catastrophic results.
They wanted to make it even more effective, and they succeeded.
However now it was able to wreck whatever it came into contact with.
This led to the modern cyber warfare we know today.
Stuxnet was only the beginning of a new and deadly phase of conflict that featured microchips
instead of missiles.
Nowadays people can hack into your smart toaster and get at you.
Thanks a lot!
4.
Zombie Gun
Now what the heck is a zombie gun.
Vladimir Putin has them and is planning on using them to achieve political and strategic
goals!
Are you nervous yet?
Guns are usually things that fire bullets, but what does a zombie gun do?
Well it doses you with high amounts of radiation and can effectively rub out your personality
with just the pull of a trigger.
Freaky, huh?
Having one of these aimed at you is pretty bad news for your central nervous system.
These weapons use microwaves and Russia has already started using low dose microwave weapons
for crowd control.
Other scary things a zombie gun is capable of include ruining your organs and even crazier
melting your eyeballs.
I’m not even kidding.
In 2012 the Russian government announced they were developing the technology for the battlefield.
It’s not only President Putin’s plans you need to worry about.
An American weapons enthusiast managed to produce his own homemade version of a zombie
gun by cannibalizing a microwave oven.
We don’t stand a chance.
3.
Tractor Beam
Tractor beams were made famous through movies like Star Wars.
They’re powerful beams that can draw in objects as big as spaceships.
But here’s a question.
What are tractor beams made from?
Tractors?
Just kidding.
It’s a curious one though, right?
A team at the University of Bristol in England may have found the answer… sound!
Using a series of tiny speakers and manipulating expertly-targeted sound waves, they are managing
to move objects, and find out more about how sounds works in the process.
They’ve discovered 3 types of force that can be generated by sound.
There’s a force that grabs the object, a force that holds it in position and another
one that whirls around creating an “eye of the storm” effect in the middle.
Between them, these forces have the potential to be used in medicine, for complex work inside
the human body.
Hopefully at some point we’ll see a Millennium Falcon get pulled into a Death Star too, but
that might be a long way off…!
2.
Laser Injector
Injections are a fact of life but that doesn’t make them any more pleasant.
None of us want a needle stuck in our skin.
Yuck!
Thankfully technology is moving medicine on from scary bits of metal, and it looks like
we may be getting injected very differently in the future!
At MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they’ve been working on an injector that
gets the chemical under your skin with an air blast.
Doesn’t sound so bad, right?
Or how about a laser-based injection?
Experts in South Korea have developed a mini lightsaber that gets the job done without
so much as a pricking sensation.
Well there might be a small pricking sensation.
We don’t mean to sound like doctors, but y’know… we don’t wanna get sued here.
This is all very cool for medicine but I am talking about weapons here, so I have to mention
the deadly aspects of this new tech.
If you can inject someone painlessly in order to save their life you can do the same thing
to end it.
You’ll never feel it coming, which is probably just as well.
1.
Lightsaber
Because this is pretty much the only thing that's missing!
You might be excited to hear that someone has constructed a working laser sword, or
at least the closest thing to a Jedi weapon you’re likely to see!
The guy behind the build is Allen Pan, who can be found on YouTube getting up to all
manner of wild experiments and trying out stuff from movies.
He’s made his own lightsaber using an extremely dangerous combination of pressure and gas.
The handle contains methanol and acetone, which gets shot out of the top by butane.
Dont do this at home!!
The gas stream is then lit by a heated coil and the result is a streak of green light
which you can use to cut through a Stormtrooper’s armour!
Actually it’s a pretty mild effect, you’re more likely to give him a good tickling but
so what?
This looks seriously awesome!
The Force is truly with Allen Pan.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t have a gas leak or another type of Force will reduce
him to atoms…
Thanks for watching!
The future is now people!!
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