AntiMatter WMD
No, I’m not talking about Iraq or George W. Bush!
Thankfully, I don’t have to talk about politics on this weblog at all. But, I did find this particular article so interesting, I had to mention it. The SanFrancisco Gate on-line has an article about a fairly quiet U.S. Air Force project to make anti-matter weapons. Apparently, the U.S. Government has been studying anti-matter since the 1930’s with a bent toward military technology. At first, it may seem frightening, but it’s no worse than nuclear weapons or power, as far as I’m concerned. And, no matter your politics, any intelligent person has got to see that things developed for the military eventually find their way to the public sector, after all, look at the history of computers and the Internet.
In any case, the article goes on to talk about various applications, including, but not limited to: miniature bombs; tiny, but long lasting, engines and batteries; and electro-magnetic pulse weapons. More interesting, I think, is the neccessary advance in containment technology and the potential energy that we might tap. The potential is, quite literally, limitless. As a fan of science-fiction, I have to say that this is very, very exciting to me. Combine this with all the recent advances in private spacecraft and the future seems like an interesting place to be again. I hope it will inspire more science-fiction writers to start writing about it again!
