• Question: CAN you weaponise your research?

    Asked by #LlAMA#cerealkiller to Clare, Glafkos, Paul, Samantha on 6 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Samantha Terry

      Samantha Terry answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      Theoretically you can weaponise everything…..

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      Nope.

    • Photo: Glafkos Havariyoun

      Glafkos Havariyoun answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      Radiation and nuclear physics has already been weaponised and was used in WWII and killed many people unfortunately.

    • Photo: Paul Booker

      Paul Booker answered on 8 Mar 2015:

      This is a really hard question! Radiotherapy itself can’t really be weaponised, but the use of radiation can and has been used as a weapon.

      In the second world war, scientists designed the atomic bomb which uses the power of uncontrolled nuclear reactions to make a huge explosion. A large area around where the bomb is dropped remains radioactive too. Two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan by the USA, which killed a huge number of people. The fact that there was so much radiation afterwards meant a lot of people got cancer and other diseases too. The people there have been followed very closely by health researchers ever since and this is where a lot of our information comes from about the risks of radiation.

      Another way radiation may be weaponised is a dirty bomb. These are ‘normal’ explosives that are designed to spread radioactive material. People are quite afraid of this sort of weapon, although they have never been made or used before and it’s likely that the main problem from it (other than the explosion itself) is the fear of the radiation, rather than any effects the radiation may cause. I’ve actually undergone training to help deal with such an event, but I think the likelihood of a dirty bomb ever being used is extremely small.

    • Photo: Clare Devery

      Clare Devery answered on 8 Mar 2015:

      Not exactly. I work with MRI scanners. I can’t think of an obvious way that an MRI scanner could be weaponised on a large scale, but that’s not to say that there isn’t danger involved. Because the main component of the scanner is a giant magnet, if anything magnetic is brought close to it, it will be strongly attracted to the scanner and travel towards it at speed. This has resulted in a number of unpleasant occurrences in the past where things such as wheelchairs or oxygen cylinders have turned into missiles essentially – flying through the air towards the scanner, taking out whatever is in their path.

Comments