Vaporized Brain Cells Via E-Bombs

The U.S. military is marketing a high-powered microwave (HPM) e-bomb that might be used in Iraq. It emits high-powered microwaves that knock out all electronic equipment within its range. A side effect:

So what of the effects? Time's Mark Thompson warns of the dangers of using HPMs near hospitals or anyone wearing pacemakers. Daniel Goure of the Lexington Institute says "there is human testing going on now for some HPMs. There is also a body of medical and environmental testing data, some based on the allegations of illnesses produced by high voltage power lines." But in an article last summer in Jane's Defence Weekly, Koch and co-author Nick Cook asked a scientist familiar with the effects of high-power microwaves what would happen if someone were hit by a megawatt HPM weapon: "All the fluid in their body cells would instantly vaporise into steam. It would happen so fast, you wouldn't even be aware of it," the scientist says. "If, on the other hand, you were caught in the sidelobe of the beam, or even by a weak reflection of the main beam off a metal surface--which could easily happen in a city--you would probably suffer terrible burns as well as permanent brain damage."