03 March 2005 Blog Home : March 2005 : Permalink
According to a 2003 review of non-lethal weapons by the US Naval Studies Board, which advises the navy and marine corps, PEPs produced "pain and temporary paralysis" in tests on animals. This appears to be the result of an electromagnetic pulse produced by the expanding plasma which triggers impulses in nerve cells.
The new study, which runs until July and will be carried out with researchers at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, aims to optimise this effect. The idea is to work out how to generate a pulse which triggers pain neurons without damaging tissue.
The contract, heavily censored before release, asks researchers to look for "optimal pulse parameters to evoke peak nociceptor activation" - in other words, cause the maximum pain possible. Studies on cells grown in the lab will identify how much pain can be inflicted on someone before causing injury or death.
Apparently though this could be used as an implement of TORTURE and is therefore a bad thing. Um excuse me. We don't need new torture weapons - anyone in a position to experience this pain ray as part of an interrogation is also in a position to experience exlectic shocks to the genitals, the chance to have one's nipples as ashtrays and so on. Indeed I would say that any weapon can be used as a torture implement and most can be used in a form that leaves no long term mark on the subject so this is not in any way unique to this weapon.