I was playing an RTS a few days ago and the game gave me an idea I wanted to ask you science guys about. Would it be possible to make some kind of device that gives of a pulse (don't know what kind, maybe EMP? i don't know) either in a radius or in a certain direction, that can set off different kinds of explosive devices? Devices like bombs on suicide bombers, in packages, cars, etc? Is that at all feasible?

If not to set them off, then to just disable them? Is it possible on a large scale like have a helicopter sweep an area and set off pulses to disable bombs?

i read about something where you can release an energy charge in a certain awy that it breaks down the molecular structure of objects in the blast radius, but that itself wolud be a bomb effectively

Your idea is so awesome that it's been thought of before. ;)

We already have these things, and we've been starting to use them in Iraq. There are two (some would say three) different ways we've been doing it.

The first is by using a powerful, continuous RF field to trick radio-detonated bombs into exploding prematurely by spoofing their receivers into thinking the button was pressed. The device looks like a mobile ham radio transceiver.

The second is by using a more powerful transient pulse of RF (like an EMP in a lot of ways) to induce currents in firing circuitry, thereby detonating the explosive prematurely. Usually this is something like a Marx generator connected to a single-use wire shunt at the focal point of a parabolic antenna. They are large and cumbersome, therefore, not widely used. Not to mention, still largely developmental.

There is a third, which is the most common, but it's just a jamming field that prevents bombs from being exploded (yes this works with cell phones and pagers too) but it doesn't actually set them off. It's the size of a police radar detector.