DailyDirt: Modern Swords To Plowshares

As technology advances, it's increasingly obvious that almost any piece of hardware can be used as a weapon, if put in the wrong hands. We can't exactly ban people from brewing their own beer at home because it's possible that they could also incubate a bioweapon with the same equipment. But how about re-purposing weapons for peaceful missions? NASA has inherited a couple pretty nice spy telescopes, and there could be plenty of other scientific uses for certain military hardware.

• A Chinese guided rocket named the SY-400 (aka the Heavy Sword) was fired into a typhoon -- for science. This shot didn't deliver an explosive payload, but a scientific one filled with sensors to collect atmospheric data. [url]
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) gets the same very bad suggestion a LOT, so it has publicly posted its official answer. The tl;dr version -- it is a VERY bad idea to try to stop a hurricane with a nuclear bomb. The slightly longer answer: the amount of energy needed to stop a hurricane is far greater than any weapon at our disposal; plus, the nuclear fallout would be insanely bad for everyone and everything. [url]
• NASA uses Global Hawk unmanned aircraft to study various atmospheric phenomena. Drones can fly day and night to study hurricanes, and NASA operates a variety of aircraft equipped for scientific missions. [url]

After you've finished checking out those links, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story