The World’s Spookiest Weapons

Cyborg animals, psychotropics and flying lasers are just some of the terrifying weapons government labs have cooked up over the years

Share

Atom bombs are just the beginning. In the last half-century, the greatest military minds on Earth have developed an arsenal of weapons to make mutually assured destruction seem tame.

Whether these masterpieces of destruction come from miles above Earth or millimeters below the skin, they have one thing in common: they’re spooky as hell.

Can turning animals into cyborgs ever end well? Should lasers really be strapped to planes? Is dispersing humans with the worst smell ever created a better alternative to doing it by burning their skin? You be the judge. Launch our gallery of the world’s spookiest weapons—some decades away and others already implemented—and marvel over what humans can create when they work apart.

The Atomic Bomb explosion as seen from the clouds
Little brown bat with its mouth open
Ruby slippers LSD sheet
Old fortune teller looking into a magic crystal ball
CornerShot rifle with a miniature camera and an LCD screen
Navy soldier training a dolphin
excerpt about homosexualism issued by a U.S. Air Force research laboratory in Ohio in 1994
military tank on the field with an invisible force shield
Metal Storm black electric rifle
cyborg spy moth development stages
Navy projectile breaking the sound barrier
puke flashlight non-lethal incapacitating device
a van sliding over the Marine's Mobility Denial System
excavator driving over a dump yard
a man covering his ears with a pained look on his face
two military trucks with with heat rays on top
the Rods from God satellites in space
a man throwing the robotic frisbee of death
people looking at the grounded Airborne Laser
tranquilized elephant lying on the ground
 

Win the Holidays with PopSci's Gift Guides

Shopping for, well, anyone? The PopSci team’s holiday gift recommendations mean you’ll never need to buy another last-minute gift card.