Cal Tech scientists invent new tech' with "extreme destructive capabilities!"

A team of scientists from Cal Tech have invented a device for firing extremely destructive & powerful 'sound bullets', high amplitude acoustic pulses of sound.

What is it? How does it work?

It makes use of a Newton's Cradle type device that is modified to produce a higher intensity compression wave that is collected & concentrated in a new design of acoustic lens that takes the sound wave being fed into it, and focus's it to an extremely precise point several inches away.

This in turn multiplies the sound waves amplitude by 100 times more than ever possible before; not 100 times its base value, 100 times the best result they had ever achieved before.

If you read the 'lets get nonlinear' section here
It gives an in depth explanation of how it all works.

Part of the reason this acoustic lens is producing these extraordinary results is due to the meta-materials being used. These are the same materials being used to make invisibility technologies.

I'm NOT talking about this clever piece of tech making use of optical camera's and projectors...

but the Meta-Material Invisibility Technology already invented & in use.

THE GIST:
*A functional invisibility cloak has been created by European scientists.
*The invisibility cloak was minute, measuring 100 microns by 30 microns.
*Recreating the invisibility cloak on a larger scale could prove challenging technically.

Meta-materials: The Next Photonics Revolution


So this Meta-Material stuff is some pretty wild innovation & looks to be going to change the world dramatically if given the opportunity. But back to the sound bullet tech specifically -

What is it capable of?

the acoustic/kinetic energy wave produced can be scaled to a vast range of physical sizes, velocities and Frequencies, for a wide range of uses.

If the sound bullets fired were within the audible bandwidth of human hearing -

The sound waves Daraio and Spadonia manipulated were too high pitched for human ears to detect. Properly adapted to audible sound, the new meta-material could turn a normal sentence into a split second ear drum rupturing explosion. source

• scaled up it could be used against submarines -
  sound bullets have been described as able to punch a hole right through the sub, or simply melt the entire sub.
  
  I interpreted this as being due to whether a bullet/wave being used to engulf the sub entirely or target a part of it.
  
  
• scaled down it could be used to destroy tumors by concentrating heat on malignant tissue below the skin without any damage to surrounding tissue
  
  (Likewise, they could scale that one up & use it to simply heat tissue & kill people. but of course they don't mention that...)
  
  
• Powerful & tightly focused waves could be used to destroy kidney stones, again without surrounding tissue damage
  
  
• apparently a doctor could use it to 'image' a patients body as they do with ultrasound transducers (transducer means speaker, like on your stereo) but without high doses of radiation
  
  
• structural engineers can use it as a surveying tool on bridges & the like
  

as sound is able to travel through virtually every medium -
air, water, solid matter, you name it and the destructive capabilities have been epitomized in the following:

If these sound bullets were actual bullets, the meta-material would be like transforming hot lead projectiles into rocket propelled grenades, all converging on one place at one time. The damage such concentrated waves of pressure could create would be devastating. source

Its pretty obvious that when this tech starts being used as weaponry it will be like a wet dream for the warmongers......

so who invented this device?

A group of Scientists & Researchers from the California Institute of Technology including:

Chiara Daraio

• Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Applied Physics at Caltech.
• person interviewed in articles referenced

&
Alessandro Spadonia

• scientist at Cal-Tech - involved in development of technology.
  
• Graduate Aerospace Laboratories
  
• Author of Peer Review paper/article:
  Generation & control of sound bullets with a non linear accoustic lens
  

From the Abstract:

Currently however the performance of acoustic devices is limited by their linear operational envelope, which implies relatively inaccurate focusing and low focal power. Here we show a dramatic focusing effect and the generation of compact acoustic pulses (sound bullets) in solid and fluid media, with energies orders of magnitude greater than previously achievable.

Here is a video of the concept in action -
Stress waves traveling in a nonlinear acoustic lens and sound bullet formation


That's all I know about it so far, after a quick search I saw this had not been mentioned at ATS yet, and I thought definitely needed to be.

P.L.U.R.I
-B.M

~~~RESOURCES & FURTHER STUDY~~~

Right Click & save As to download a 43 Minute lecture on the Meta-Materials & 'Sound Bullets' Technology given by Chiara Daraio
~
Article: Deadly 'Sound Bullets' spring from Newtons cradle
~
Article: Sound Bullets could blast sub, Cancer
~
Article: Sound Bullets inspired by Newton's toy, Target Cancer
~
Article: How can sound be used as a weapon?
~
Article: Making surgery scalpels from sound waves

[edit on 25/7/10 by B.Morrison]

I'm feeling pretty negative about this technology, more due to the people in power at the moment, we need a radically more intelligent, functional, peaceful society before I think we could make proper use of this technology, to me, it is evident in the simple fact that everyone involved seemed to be focused on the 'sound bullets' potential as a weapon, journalists & inventors alike.

[edit on 25/7/10 by B.Morrison]

probably very useful in targeted long distance voice to skull applications...

probably even going to become useful to target individual organs within the body, by adjusting input/output frequencies to match those that operate that organ.

I think we're in alot of trouble here folks.

[edit on 7/25/2010 by Megiddodiddo]

reply to post by B.Morrison


They stole my idea!



The only difference is mine involved a '57 Les Paul Custom.



Seriously, interesting stuff and well presented. Thanks, star and flag for posting this.

It's always interesting to hear about the latest developments in the science of acoustics (to me, anyway) but I agree that they could steer the technology in a less sinister direction.


TheAssoc.

Sound's like a vortex cannon but using sound I find the claims pretty far fetched but then I always do until I see something working.

The BBC Show "Bang Goes The Theory" show did a pretty good vortex cannon and managed to knock down a wall just using the pressure wave (clips should be on you tube) so I think if this Sound one works it could be pretty impressive.

Of course I could be off on completely the wrong track, sounds cool anyway though.

The trouble is that Humans have shown with every major discovery/invention that thay are not really ready for that discovery/invention as all they ever seem to use it for is destruction and weapons!

thanks for posting guys,
its good to know that I'm not the only one interested in this tech & concerned about the proposed applications.

As a musician who studied sound engineering briefly I am fascinated that while my lecturers mentioned things like how a perfectly spherical room would make the worst recording studio as it would set up standing waves & stuff......in this application, spherical object are helping achieve their goals.

I'm also impressed how they mapped out everything to work out exactly where phase shifting would occur, were relying on that data being correct for the device to function, and they managed to succeed.

however,

what an awful weapon to inflict on the world if in the wrong hands.
And what deplorable timing, there are plenty of wrong hands around who I'm sure would love to use this thing.

-B.M

P.S)
Megiddodiddo, the acoustic psychological weaponry claimed to have been used in iraq, the one that the navy would use to 'beam words right into their heads', seemed to be a very narrow directional beam they could aim at someone's head and speak through it like a loudspeaker from great distances & mess with the enemies heads.

I imagine that would have been some kind of continual set of waves rather than a pulse of acoustic sound or kinetic energy, although I imagine that is how medical ultrasound would work also so I guess it doesn't matter as the device could probably do both pulses & waves/beams/whatever....?

[edit on 25/7/10 by B.Morrison]

reply to post by Teknikal


I think the main difference will be in the material construction of the device, and the method by which the sound is amplified and directed.
With your bog standard bodged together vortex cannon the science involved is not that complicated, and the results of the testing of vortex cannon is well documented.
With this new technology, the entire fabric of the device from the molecular composition of the materials used, right the way to the way the sounds are made and amplified appears to have been re invented to the level of being barely recognisable when stood next to vortex systems.

reply to post by TrueBrit


I don't know if you could say its at all the same as a vortex cannon if you read how it (the Caltech device) generates & then concentrates the waves, and that they a referring to everything in the context of sound, but maybe that's my opinion simply out of ignorance as I am only just finding out about vortex cannon's now..

The vortex cannon creates "a 200 mile-an-hour cloud"...basically an air blast that can knock stuff over at a distance.Source

here's a video if anyone else was wondering..
A clip from that Band goes the Theory episode mentioned ealier by Teknikal


and a decent photo-


damn that thing is cool..

-B.M

[edit on 25/7/10 by B.Morrison]

reply to post by B.Morrison


Well of course I did mention that the main difference would be in the production/ amplification section of the device. Since the vortex runs on compressed gas, and the new device works by some bizzare compression wave control involving a newtons cradle.
I read one of the linked pages , and it mentioned the possible medical applications of this technology ... I am impressed by the scope of this device thats for sure. Apart from any interesting possibilities in the military feild, theres a chance this thing could be used to destroy damaged cells in a human body... if that ever comes off, it will be one of the greatest medical advances for years !

This is what i imagine this would do to the human body if made into a weapon.

fast forward to 26 second, where the big blue guy attcks the vietnamese soldiers.

Originally posted by TrueBrit
reply to post by B.Morrison

 

Well of course I did mention that the main difference would be in the production/ amplification section of the device.

ah, reading back you did say that, sorry I'm pretty tired & bout to crash out, I think I got your post confused with the other one..

theres a chance this thing could be used to destroy damaged cells in a human body... if that ever comes off, it will be one of the greatest medical advances for years !

true, that would be pretty awesome.

-B.M

[edit on 25/7/10 by B.Morrison]

Flagged and Starred. This is a very well done thread and it covers what I feel to be a very important breakthrough. I wonder if they could employ this same tech on a much larger scale, I think it would be a great alternative to conventional explosives for excavation and the like.

reply to post by B.Morrison


This sounds an awful lot like the fremen sound gun! (from the movie dune) it uses sound energy to destroy things even people! if you havent seen the movie i recoment watching the original and newer ones quite relevent to today, "the spice must flow" sort of like "the oil must flow"

They already use sound to destroy kidney stones... very effectively.

This is still both fascinating and scary all at the same time.

sounds lika a knock down the walls ov jericho death trumpet to me

Originally posted by brutalsun
They already use sound to destroy kidney stones... very effectively.

This is still both fascinating and scary all at the same time.

starred because I did not know that, however I wonder if with this they might be able to do that procedure even 100 times more efficiently/effectively?

the scientists did say the could easily push the multiplication further,
and they seem to claim it would be safer too,
though why it would be safer I don't know.

-B.M

[edit on 25/7/10 by B.Morrison]

Sometimes i feel like i'm on the planet of the apes. We have a way of taking something good,and completely using that thing in a bad way. This technology was once rumored to have brought down the walls of Jerico in the bible,so its possible it's not so new,maybe just stolen technology,who knows. The human race needs to get some common sense and try to mature fast before it implodes in on us from our child like curiosity.

this is a scary technology for sure...but how much energy has to be put into this thing to get these amazing results....seems like anymore people are coming up with inventions and ideas that require huge amounts of energy to get such little effect with no mention at all about what power goes into the machine just a bunch of talk about the end results....look at the particle accelerator and fusion reactors....how much energy do you think goes into a microwave oven that heats tritium up to 100000000 degrees for a few seconds of fusion....what a waste...maybe this will be the same way

reply to post by B.Morrison


Thanks, OP- always nice, to know what "the enemy", has in his arsenal. Of course, once things get "hot", WE will be aquiring them, also. ANYTHING they have, WE will have. Hell, I'm planning on making THEM load my truck, before I leave!

They have sound cannons- we have rail-guns. Gonna be fun!!
Have a FUN Revolution!