Word: beams
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...essentially blocked by buildings, hills and other obstructions. Thus the ghostly muons could be highly useful in heavily built-up metropolitan areas, where they would easily reach into the interior of metal skyscrapers and even deep into subway tunnels. What is more, since muons travel in a relatively narrow beam, they could be aimed with precision. Says Arnold: "You wouldn't have to worry about sending signals where you didn't want them...
Arnold is convinced that his scheme is entirely feasible. As a demonstration, he reports in Science, he recently set up two detectors near Argonne's 12 billion-electron-volt proton synchrotron. Then he periodically inserted a small block of brass in the path of a beam of particles from the accelerator. The effect was predictable: whenever the metal was in the way, it slightly weakened but did not block the flow of muons to the detectors 160 yds. away. Arnold had in effect devised a simple Morse telegraph system. By appropriately timing the intervals during which the metal...
Radiation. At present the only method man has for producing muon beams of message-carrying strength is to use expensive atom smashers. But Arnold contends that less costly machines designed specifically to make muons could be built in the near future. According to his estimate, a 100 billion-volt synchrotron, capable of producing a muon beam with a range of up to 600 miles, would cost about $10 million. That is roughly the price of a system of microwave towers covering a comparable distance. Furthermore, Arnold says, there might actually be a savings if muon beams were used to take...
...physicists call it, includes an even stranger will-o'-the-wisp called the neutrino: a virtually massless and chargeless bundle of energy. That tiny particle can pass through matter of any thickness, including the entire earth. Furthermore, regardless of how many neutrinos there might be in a beam, they would present no radiation hazard. Thus if a neutrino transmission and detection system could be developed, the elusive particle might prove to be an even better answer to man's growing communications needs...
Some U.S. aircraft are now being outfitted with laser "projectors" that train the beam for the plane's own bombs to follow. There are also infra-red bombs that home in on the heat of tank or truck engines...