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Russians test a gun that turns people into zombies

By | April 9, 2012, 6:10 AM PDT

Electromagnetic technology similar to the U.S. military's heat ray is being used to create a zombie gun.

Electromagnetic technology similar to the U.S. military's heat ray is being used to create a zombie gun.

It’s been widely speculated that the U.S. military has been developing weapons with the capacity to scramble brain activity and basically turn your mind into mush. If so, we might be seeing a new kind of arms race as a new report claims that the Russia government has been testing a gun that does exactly that.

The weapon in question uses electromagnetic technology, such as microwave beams, to disrupt the central nervous system. Indeed, previous research has shown that certain kinds of low-frequency radiation can cause “a sensation of buzzing, clicking or hissing in the head,” according to a report by MSNBC. So along that line of logic, taking it up a few notches would lead to weapons that can potentially fry eyeballs, stop the heart from beating and even turn people into zombies.

Right now there’s no indication that anyone’s perfected anything close to an actual “zombie gun,” although the Australian publication The Herald Sun reports that Russia’s main man, President Vladimir Putin, plans to have them ready within a decade as a defensive measure against enemies of the state or unruly dissidents, such as protesters.

According to their report:

Plans to introduce the super-weapons were announced by Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov. While the technology has been around for some time, Mr. Tsyganok said the guns were recently tested for crowd control purposes.

“When it was used for dispersing a crowd and it was focused on a man, his body temperature went up immediately as if he was thrown into a hot frying pan,” Mr Tsyganok said. “Still, we know very little about this weapon and even special forces guys can hardly cope with it,” he said.

But the effort to come up with something that can enable bona fide mind control has proven immensely challenging, despite decades of work by some of the brightest mad scientists. For instance, while the U.S. military has harnessed similar technology to produce a heat ray that creates a burning sensation hot enough to break up crowds, it still takes hours to power up and is a lot less effective when it rains.

MSNBC’s science editor Alan Boyle says he’s skeptical of Russia’s claims and that we probably shouldn’t expect a brain-frying gun for a very long time:

The bottom line is that Russia certainly seems to be on track to set up its own DARPA-like “Department of Mad Scientists,”working on heat rays, mind-altering electromagnetic beams and heaven knows what else. But there’s nothing in the comments from Putin and Serdyukov to suggest that the Russians are anywhere close to having psychotronic weapons. In fact, Putin makes it sound as if the next frontier in warfare won’t be the zombie ray gun but the coordinated cyber-attack. And that’s scary enough for me.

( via MSNBC)

More high-tech weapons:

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Tuan C. Nguyen

About Tuan C. Nguyen

Tuan C. Nguyen was a contributing editor for SmartPlanet from 2011 to 2013.

Tuan C. Nguyen

Tuan C. Nguyen

Contributing Editor

Tuan C. Nguyen is a freelance science journalist based in New York City. He has written for the U.S. News and World Report, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC News, AOL, Yahoo! News and LiveScience. Formerly, he was reporter and producer for the technology section of ABCNews.com. He holds degrees from the University of California Los Angeles and the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism.

Follow him on Twitter.

Tuan C. Nguyen

Tuan C. Nguyen

Tuan C. Nguyen does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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-1 Votes
+ -
Zombie Gun
The Democrats beat them to it. How do you think they got Obama elected? (roflol)
Posted by IMWeira
10th Apr 2012
0 Votes
+ -
It has been in use for decades in Massachusetts.
How do you think Dukakis and Kerry ever got elected to office and ran for president?
Posted by Hates Idiots
10th Apr 2012
+1 Vote
+ -
Hunting
Got a 30 round clip in my AR15 and ready for the Zombie Apocalypse..... Let's Roll!
Posted by Tinman57
10th Apr 2012
-1 Votes
+ -
Zombie Apocalype
Just today I was saying our weapons are so 20th century. FINALLY, something for the modern single girl...Watch out losers!
Posted by tzintzuntzan
27th Jul
-1 Votes
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Zombiefication is not mind control its mind destruction
The US has the best mind control ever devised by man and its called Madison Ave using all forms of media. Why do you think the MKULTRA and other files were ordered to be destroyed by the Director of the CIA Richard Helms as the results proved what we knew all along and they had to be destroyed to protect the embarrassing facts guilty of human experimentation. If there was a useful result the records would be retained regardless of law or human degradation destruction and murder. And in the words of our fearless leader Dick Cheney are you brain dead? Welll perhaps eh? Had any psychotronic weapons tested on you lately? Well its not like well tell you if we do!
Posted by Altotus
28th Jul
-1 Votes
+ -
Anyone designing or desiring such a weapon is an enemy of mankind.
Psychopaths should be put away or put down, they should not be allowed to play.
Posted by Reality Bites
9th Jan
-1 Votes
+ -
Hmmm. Time to start sewing my new gillie suit
Fine conductive mesh with a trailing discharge strip along each pant leg.
Posted by Dr_Zinj
15th Feb
0 Votes
+ -
And If You Shot A Zombie With It?
Would it turn them back to human?
Posted by aamir_da_great
16th Apr
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