Gooey, noisy and smelly weapons under study

WASHINGTON -- Life could suddenly become a sticky, noisy, smelly, altogether unpleasant mess for rioters or enemies that authorities want stopped but not killed.

There are proposals for microorganisms that gobble up highways and runways, sticky sprays that make floors and stairs a gummy mess and fogs that smell really, really bad -- just some of the ideas researched or proposed by the government and contractors and collected by the National Academy of Sciences in a study of non-lethal weapons technology.

Such technology has drawn a lot of interest both for crowd control by police departments and for military use in situations such as Bosnia and Somalia where soldiers may need to defuse situations without killing people.

Some examples are already in use ranging from tear gas to rubber bullets to flash-bang grenades.

Others are under study or development.

Bad, bad eggs

Take for example a Marine Corps proposal for "situational control by olfactory stimuli."

Think rotten eggs, times 10.

The idea is to combine several bad-smelling substances, largely based on sulfur, with an odor enhancer, sprayed or fogged into an area to induce nausea and cause people to flee.

The researchers would also develop an enzyme to be taken by friendly troops that would counteract the effect.

Simply using gas masks or air filters wouldn't necessarily help, thanks to another project at Los Alamos National Labs.

That research is looking at an aerosol that would form a polymer when it collects on a surface. A polymer is a large molecule formed from many small ones and in this case it would form a solid covering over such things as the filter of a gas mask, air intake of a tank engine or carburetor of a car.

Lack of air can force an enemy to take off a gas mask, halt engines and shut down an underground bunker.

Over at the Office of Naval Research they're looking at genetically modified bacteria that could be sprayed on highways and airport runways and "eat" the asphalt.

It's the kind of thing that could get out of hand, though, and researchers are also looking into a gene that makes the bacteria die out after a period of time. The project also includes developing a way to "vaccinate" roads that need to be protected.

Sticky situations

Sometimes you want things to be slippery, sometimes you don't.

A project at Sandia National Laboratories proposes a microencapsulated lubricant that can be spread on surfaces such as roads, but remains inert.

When something heavy, like an enemy car, drives over, the tiny capsules burst, freeing the lubricant and making the road slippery and impassable.

Inside a motor, of course, lubricants are good, reducing friction so things run smoothly and don't overheat.

The Office of Naval Research has the answer for that. It's working on ways to "poison" lubricants in enemy machinery, making them become sticky and causing breakdowns.

Speaking of sticky, Sandia Labs has a proposal to develop weapons that dispense nontoxic sticky materials in foams or sprays.

Enemy computers could be a target and the Defense Nuclear Agency is looking at an aerosol that, once sprayed into the computer center, would short out any exposed electrical connectors and corrode insulators.

While the project to block air intakes requires polymerization, another effort at the Office of Naval Research takes the opposite tack -- depolymerization of things like rubber.

These chemicals could be dispersed by unmanned aircraft, causing enemy tires to deteriorate and fail.