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There was a time when increasing the distance between yourself and a sharp shooter bent on your extermination would significantly improve your chances of survival. But that time is coming to an end. More »
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When we reflect on iconic images of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and their nuclear devastation, one of the first to come to mind is inevitably a mushroom cloud. More »
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You may remember French puppeteering group Royal De Luxe's mechanical elephant, but here's an even more deliciously absurd contrivance. This is the piano catapult, a musical siege weapon that was recently shown off in the city of Nantes. It's not particularly effective, but at least we'll know what to expect if Billy Joel ever tries to conquer the globe. More »
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This is the Louisville Decapitron, a Louisville Slugger baseball bat outfitted with a 20-inch-long, plasma-cut steel blade. A weaponsmith named Gord built this hybrid weapon when he realized he was woefully unprepared for the undead uprising. More »
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Anyone with a lick of sense knows that you don't go up against ants in a fight, especially if they're Camponotus cylindricus. Try anything, and they'll explode themselves and decorate your body with their corpses. More »
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At some point during World War II, loony solutions to practical problems really started to shine. There were pigeon-guided missiles, shark repellent, and giant aircraft carriers made of ice. Well, almost. The ice aircraft carrier was a legitimate plan in World War II, mostly because military intelligence discovered Pykrete, the substance that melts so slowly it might as well be concrete. More »
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Gun cotton, or nitrocellulose, is a staple of a certain era of science fiction — and a certain era of firerarms. In the mid-nineteenth century, it was called 'smokeless powder' and used by the French military. Meanwhile, Jules Verne was using it, in his novels, to launch things into space and fight off bad guys. And smokeless powder was discovered because of a cooking accident and an apron. More »
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The US Navy is introducing a new kind of missile. Instead of taking explosives to the target, the missile will be a chemical reaction held in readiness until it hits the target. The navy says it will reduce the deaths of innocent bystanders while increasing the effect of the explosion. More »
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Sword swallowers are often thought of as magicians or illusionists. Although there are plenty of arcane skills they have to learn, there's no real 'trick' to their work. They don't use blades that collapse down, or insert them down the collar of their shirt or use smoke and mirrors. They just swallow a sword. More »
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Jalila Essaidi is testing the limits of human endurance, and it starts by having to milk spider-goats. Spider goats are otherwise innocent-looking goats that have been genetically engineered to produce milk packed with the protein made in spider's silk. (There is no definitive proof that this also gives them a propensity to skitter up walls or hide out in your sock drawer, but I think it does.) More »
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World War II was a wonderful mix of high tech, low tech, and just plain crazy. One idea, which in many ways exemplified the era, was the concept of the pigeon-guided missile, thought up by none other than B.F. Skinner. More »
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BAE System's Mk 38 chain gun was already a formidable opponent: a 250millimeter cannon capable of putting 180 rounds per minute into the air from the deck of a naval ship, strongly urging those without clearance to keep a safe distance (of about 2,000 yards). More »
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Lasers have become common since their invention in the 1960s. We use them every day to read optical media like DVDs, to see if our shelves are level, measure distances, or just to point at things. There are lots of medical and industrial uses for lasers too, but what we really want to know is how we can use them to defeat alien and Cylon invaders. Here are some ways the military is (and will be) using lasers on the battlefield. More »
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To be fair, this will be a very tiny flamethrower. You would only be able to burn an elf or one of those things from Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. But it's still cool. More »
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An easy experiment with a gas range and a box of paper clips can give you a good understanding of how to strengthen, and soften, steel. Should you ever be hurled into a medieval world of elves and sorcerers, you can make your living as a smithee. More »
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It looks like X-Men: First Class isn't the only thing cashing in on Cold War nostalgia this summer. Russia may also be reaching back to the past by reviving a Soviet-era laser project. More »
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Even in the early days of humanity, people were lazy. They wanted a way to kill each other without having to go to all the trouble of bashing each other's heads in with rocks. So they turned to better living (briefly) through chemistry. Find out how wolf crap and chilis won wars. More »
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It was the early 1940s. A war stretched across the globe. Times were desperate, and there was no method people were too proud to use - including a stink bomb. More »
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Red Riding Hood, a film about a werewolf, comes out today. Werewolves live as humans, only turning into wolves on the night of the full moon. They're strong, vicious, and they can only be killed by silver. But why silver? More »
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Knocking someone's head clean off their body has always seemed to be a surefire way to kill them. It kills vampires. It kills zombies. It kills Highlanders. There's nothing like a beheading to make sure that something stays dead. But how long does it take to die? More »
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Recently I was invited to, and attended, a lightsaber fight in a park. The organizer supplied the entire battle with lightsabers from her own collection. I took the opportunity to ask her opinion on the best online saber sources. More »
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We imagine that real-life archers are constantly frustrated by the inaccuracies of movies and comic books. Namely, the fact that no one realizes you can only hit a target if you're aiming somewhat away from it. More »
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A warning to salvagers. Underwater conditions 'arm' iron cannonballs and cookware. Bringing them to the surface can cause them to explode. More »
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Missile 1, Flying Laser 0. So much for America's real-life "lightsaber." More »
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When it comes to undesired noises, silencing guns is the same thing as silencing incessant yammerers. It all comes down to dealing with hot gas. More »
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65 years ago, 250 scientists working on the Manhattan Project were asked how atomic weapons should be used in the war with Japan. Now you can take the same poll, and compare your answers with theirs. More »
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The Active Denial System, an invisible heat ray that induces a painful burning sensation on human skin, has joined US marines in Afghanistan. Unlike the smaller, 750-foot-ranged Silent Guardian, the ADS can emit heat beams over 1,640 feet. [BBC] More »
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Susan Treister's insanely detailed art piece A Timeline of Science Fiction Inventions: Weapons, Warfare and Security catalogues 150 science fiction killing devices spanning almost 300 years. Her timeline covers crysknives, lightsabers, proton packs, and everything in between. More »
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The nuclear cannon dubbed "Atomic Annie" fires a 280 millimeter nuclear artillery shell packing 15 kilotons of explosive force, in this breathtaking image from 1953's Operation Upshot-Knothole in Nevada. Check out more images from our only nuclear artillery test. More »
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Babies can be a liability in a post-apocalyptic world, but Shi Jinsong's designs are here to help. His weaponized cradle, stroller, and baby walker ensure that your infant can pull their weight, even if they aren't old enough to walk. More »
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Giant jellyfish and cephalopods are fearsome enough on their own, but wait until they get their tentacles on man-made weapons. Keith Noordzy's Man-Made Disaster series pairs natural monsters with technological menaces. More »
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The latest poster for Iron Man 2 reveals Whiplash's mighty electric whips. These things look more dangerous for him than his enemies, which earns Whiplash a spot on our "bearer of terrible weapons" list, next to Dr. No and Gogo. More »
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The US Department of Homeland Security has funded the creation of a non-lethal weapon called the Dazzler that's basically a flashlight that causes disorientation, nausea, and vomiting. Now you can make one too! Hardware hackers from Adafruit explain it all. More »
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The big bad alien controlled weapons confiscated from the alien inhabitants of District 9 make a blood-splattering mess of their targets. We talked to director Neill Blomkamp about his scientific inspiration behind these killing machines, and the violence. Minor spoilers... More »
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What's the future of warfare? Factions within the U.S. military are battling over this very question. Some military leaders believe that after Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. will avoid ever getting embroiled in another "assymetrical" ground wars against an enemy that uses "irregular" methods. They believe the United States' next war will be against an equally powerful enemy, who uses similarly advanced technology and weaponry. But others, led by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, want to prepare for more battles against local insurgencies. At issue is the larger question: will the U.S. be occupying more unwilling host countries in the years, and decades, to come? Image by Mark Gallagher. [Los Angeles Times] More »
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In the arms race between local terrorist groups in Iraq and the US occupying forces, things just got more complicated with the development of the "improvised rocket-assisted mortar." Essentially it's IED 2.0, the next step in homebrew explosives that militant groups use against US forces. Though the IRAMs aren't being used widely yet, what's scary about them is that they're mobile, have really bad aim, and pack a punch that's considerably bigger than a conventional rocket. And in many ways, they're weapons of the future. More »
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At some point in humanity's future, our military forces are going to have to fight alien invaders, angry robots or hordes of zombies. Ultimately, a bunch of infantry grunts are going to have to hold the line against the onslaught. And they're going to need guns. Awesome guns. What have the arms merchants of the world been cooking up? Here are the five guns Popular Mechanics thinks are the most promising. More »
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The new direct-to-DVD movie Starship Troopers: Marauder has promised us suicidal bugs, scorpion bugs and even new kinds of smart bugs but now we get our first look at the human bug-fighters' new toys. Check out the bulky death robot still from the DVD movie. You can just glimpse this big new fancy bug-killing machine, and its new toys, in the last ST3M trailer. Looks like there's room for one handsome devil Johnny Rico inside. Click through for a closer look at ST3M's guns and robots. More »
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If you're worried about the environment but still need to blow people up, a new class of nitrogen-based bomb materials is for you. Popular explosives like TNT and HMX react to form nitrogen oxides when detonated, the major culprits behind smog and acid rain. This is a big no-no if you're the type of warmonger who drives a hybrid tank, obviously, so weapons experts at the University of Munich devised an alternatives that are cleaner, more stable, and even more powerful than those other explosives. More »
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Crotch weapons are the stuff of life in science fiction: You simply can't have a great fight without snapping a giant gun between your legs once in a while, or using your crotch as a finishing weapon in a ninja battle. The question is, which crotch weapon is the best? Which fires the most flaming jizz, and which can crush the most heads? Also, which crotch weapon has the element of surprise? And, for you trivia buffs, whose crotch weapon actually resides in the ass area rather than the frontal zones? Read on for the eight best crotch weapons in science fiction, and (of course) to find out which one wins the crotch weapon measuring contest. More »
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