The Plasma Sterilization of Wounds and Medical Devices program is investigating the ability of a plasma or partially ionized gas to kill pathogenic bacteria on the surface of the skin, leading to improved wound healing and reduction of secondary infections.
A railgun is an entirely electrical gun that accelerates a conductive projectile along a pair of metal rails using the same principles as the homopolar motor. Railguns use two sliding or rolling contacts[1] that permit a large electric current to pass through the projectile. This current interacts with the strong magnetic fields generated by the rails and this accelerates the projectile. Particular characteristics are the lack of propellant (only the projectile and the electrical energy to launch it are required to be expended) and the ability to launch projectiles much faster than firearms-based technology allows.
It sounds like a James Bond plot: a soldier pulls a cigarette from its packet, throws it in the air, and it flies off on a spying mission. But that screenplay was written by US defence research agency DARPA, which is paying researchers at Oklahoma State University to make it happen. A number of blogs reported on the research, so I thought I'd get the story straight from Jamey Jacob, the engineer leading the project. Using plasma to control the airflow over an aircraft's surface is an idea that began with Soviet researchers but has grabbed the attention of engineers the world over, as we've reported before.
A bubble of plasma could shield astronauts from radiation during long journeys through space, researchers are suggesting. If the idea proves viable, it means heavy metal protective panels could be replaced by a plasma shield of just a few grams.
For soldiers the application is know as PASS. The Plasma Acoustic Shield System, or PASS, is in the process of being developed by Stellar Photonics. The company received a $2.7 million contract from the U.S. Government to build the PASS.[1] It is part of a project supervised by the United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center. The laser was first tested in 2008, and will continue to be tested into 2009, with the testing of turret-mounted PASS.
So Darpa is proposing "a radically new approach to both fire manipulation and suppression" — one centered around the realization that flames are, in many ways, electrical.
[F]lames are a cold plasma consisting of mobile electrons and slower positive ions. This discovery… has its origins in the classic work of Volta in the early 1800s on the “electrical nature” of flames. Since typical flames cannot exist without a stable plasma, this provides an effective point of attack: control the plasma to control the fire. Control includes both fire extinguishment and spatiotemporal manipulation; the bending of flames by electric fields was first demonstrated in the 1870s. Spatiotemporal manipulation of flames could permit the creation of “escape corridors” in flame-filled environments, and achieve the spatial localization/confinement required to prevent spreading of fire to other combustible materials.Which is why Darpa believes that "the methods of plasma physics and chemistry can be applied to create revolutionary new capabilities for fire suppression. Possible candidates: Everything from "electromagnetic fields" to"acoustic ion injection[s]" to "static electricity" to "chemical suppressants" to some combination of ‘em all.
This vision of a ray gun or blaster straight from sci-fi fantasy is not exactly what it first seems. U.S. Air Force Capt. Drew Goettler demonstrates the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR, a non-lethal laser weapon. The PHaSR was developed by the ScorpWorks team at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland AFB, N.M., to help protect troops and control hostile crowds by using low-power laser light to dazzle the eyes of potential assailants.To learn more about these subjects just click the paragraphs and they are linked to there source. Thanks
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