Issue 14 sonic screw drivers!? feb,20,2013

I know it's a day late (busy yesterday), but the wait is over. :)

Sonic Screw Drivers!?

Did you know that within the last decade that science and technology have been going through a rapid evolution? Well, it has, and one of the cool things to come out of this revolution is the ability to manipulate sound. I first heard of the technology on the military channel (no surprise there right), and they had created a device that can shoot a beam of sound at an opponent to debilitate them. By debilitate, I mean force a relaxation of the targets muscles and the people collapse while all their voluntary and involuntary muscles are affected. It was so effective that they shut down the project. The weapon did not kill, it stunned, but the people who were hit by the beam literally peed and pooped in their pants. Thus, it was felt the weapon was too inhumane.

While yes the military could have done further research, and the L.A. police department was interested, they shifted gears to make a new non-lethal sound wave weapon to defend U.S. ships in foreign waters. It is called a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD). Its development came out of the U.S.S. Cole incident where the Navy crewmen had only machine guns to stop other vessels from coming to close. They did not fire on the small boat approaching out of fear of creating an international incident. As a result, the small boat (which was a terrorist bomb) exploded causing the death of 17 of our soldiers. So LRAD was created which acts as a bull horn to say "stay away" was created. However, it is much more than a bull horn. The device can send messages in other languages, and even transmit certain sounds in the traditional hearing range all the way to a debilitating level to the ears. It only affects those in the beam, so if you are standing next to the device, you hear nothing. Police departments, cruise liners and other companies are now using it for riot control and self defense.

Deviating from the military, sound wave technology is impacting the field of medicine. Another recent development is a device capable of using sound to heat liquids, stir liquids together, act as a centrifuge to separate particles in the liquid, and potentially both cool liquids and break down particles further within a liquid. The device uses different frequencies of sound and adjusts how sound hits the target liquid to perform this feet of engineering. An amazing technology to be sure, as with this machine you don't have to waste precious time transferring the sample from one machine to the other.

Sound technology is only going to become more ubiquitous. It can be used to loosen tight nuts and bolts on a work sight, weld metals and plastics by heating them up, cut materials or even cancel out other noises with noise cancelling devices which use sound to destroy other sounds. Heck, we have sonic fences to keep out dogs and cats in and other pests out. A technology even in "Star Wars" may come about where sound is used to separate pathogens (bacteria, poisons, unwelcome chemicals and viruses) from the blood stream. Even tumors are not out of the realm of possibility of being blasted away by sound. The idea was to use sound on the body at different frequencies to remove and destroy what is harmful to the body and now that technology may become fully realized. The applications are endless as sound can be used to aid in physical therapy, traditional messages (a sonic message sounds nice), sonic showers to avoid using water (star trek anyone) or just a basic relaxation aid. Sound it now a tool that we can use, and potentially abuse to our benefit.