Do govenments etc use microwave technology to observe a person in their natural habitat (doing fuck-all:what every other fucking person in the world does), or do they use it to slowly kill someone without a trace. If the latter is true I would like to know why a person would wish to kill someone who has done nothing but attempt to help it's country, and people in general. Is this a motive worthy of the death sentence?? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Ask Kathaksung, he knows all about nefarious uses of microwave technology. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! How do you mean use microwave energy to observe people? By eavesdropping on their mobile phones, which operate at microwave frequencies i think? AS for killing people using them, thats a very dodgy are, I dont know of much research on it. But how small a unit would you need to harm people? Quick, buy an EM field detector so yuo can find out when theyre targeting you.
If you're talking about millimeter-wave radar, it's being worked on in the US and Great Britain for use locating personnel inside buildings. It can see through walls. If you're talking about microwave antipersonnel weaponry, the US Army toyed with it in the 1950s and again in the 1970s, and found it ineffective. Principally because antennas and transmitters/amplifiers have to be so big that they're hardly portable. Besides, machine guns and cluster bombs do an excellent job dispatching large numbers of infantry anyway.
Microwaves are extremely poor for "visual" imaging. Their wavelength is too long. You cannot reasonably "see" a detail smaller than the wavelength of the light used as illumination. You simply can't "slowly" kill someone with microwaves. Microwaves damage living tissues by simple heating. Just as you can't slowly kill someone with fire, you can't do it with microwaves. Well, I guess you could.... but it certainly would not be "without a trace".
They do neither. Apart from the fact that they have no wish to (which I expect you will not believe), it is not possible. Microwaves are difficult to direct precisely, and the power levels needed to trace or harm anybody would give the scheme away immidiately. You would have all kinds of funny effects, like unconnected lamps lighting up all the time, house-hold electronics and other utilities acting weird, etc. Plus, the logistics would be nasty to handle and impossible to keep secret. Hans
Microwave non-lethal weapons are in final development now by the US millitary. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,458681,00.html However, these are not being used for tracing a person (as the reflective scatter is too strong), nor for killing them without a trace (there would be physical effects on the person's tissue, namely ti would be cooked, just like if you stuck a raw chicken breast in the microwave oven for 20 minutes on high.
Yeah, microwaves could be used for that. There will be a lot of troubles, though: - Under special conditions they might cause severe burns, even fatal. - There might be a long-term cancer risk. - There will probably be a temporary loss of fertility for male targets. - It will probably be dangerous to pacemaker users. - Destructive effect on electronics, including watches, hearing aids, etc. - Metal objects being heated violently. Considering this, I predict practical application, at least for policing purposes, will be bogged down permanently in legislation. Finally, there are possible counter-measures: - Simple aluminum foil will provide screening. - Metal plates will work as shields and can reflect beams back at wielders. - Terrorists might device and plant bombs that will be set off by the beams. Hans
Recent article in 'New Scientist' postulated the use of 'Terawaves' which sit between IR and microwave. Previously, they haven't been easy to produce or detect, but recent advances make them more doable now. They could be used to see through walls, and through skin into organs, etc. So they would have many uses, without the drawbacks of X-Rays. So, from spying, to medical advances, keep an eye out for T-Wave technologies emerging soom.
Sure, that part of the spectrum is fairly unexplored till now. For imaging, it is not very useful (too long wavelength), but it might turn out to have interesting penetration windows. "Terawaves" is really a poor-fitting name, because he wavelenght is very short, we are talking milimeters, or fractions of millimeters. Hans
