Idea from scifi.

Given that most high explosives are 100% organic.

eg. Nitrocellulose, nitrocotton, ammonium nitrate + biodiesel, trinitrotoluene, dynamite (originally TNT stabilised with sawdust)

What are the prospects for genetic modification of a plant, or plant + bacteria combination, to grow high explosive?

https://what-if.xkcd.com/97/

Natural powders such as pollen could already be an explosive…

dv said:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/97/

Natural powders such as pollen could already be an explosive…

Morning all.
Nature has already come up with something like that:

Bombardier beetles are ground beetles (Carabidae) in the tribes Brachinini, Paussini, Ozaenini, or Metriini—more than 500 species altogether—which are most notable for the defense mechanism that gives them their name: when disturbed, they eject a hot noxious chemical spray from the tip of the abdomen with a popping sound.
The spray is produced from a reaction between two chemical compounds, hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide, which are stored in two reservoirs in the beetle’s abdomen.

dv said:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/97/

Natural powders such as pollen could already be an explosive…

iF pollen’s a Natural Explosive
why do I have to blow my own nose
every morning during the Spring? )-: honk

Ogmog said:

dv said:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/97/

Natural powders such as pollen could already be an explosive…

iF pollen’s a Natural Explosive
why do I have to blow my own nose
every morning during the Spring? )-: honk

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/848792

https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1164/arrd.1977.115.4.609

roughbarked said:

Ogmog said:

dv said:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/97/

Natural powders such as pollen could already be an explosive…

iF pollen’s a Natural Explosive
why do I have to blow my own nose
every morning during the Spring? )-: honk

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/848792

https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1164/arrd.1977.115.4.609

Although I am blessedly normally unaffected by the effects of pollen,
this year the pollen count has been particularly abundant, so while
all about me are puffy eyed and sneezing, even I have been waking
up with a stuft up head. (honk)

I’m cursed with chronic bronchitis that rears its ugly head whenever
I experience difficulty drawing an unobstructed breath. eg a cold or flu,
so although I don’t have asthma in the classic sense, I can commiserate.

My Question Is:
Might the investigation relating pollen to asthma be skewed by people
that might be choking, wheezing, even turning blue & dying, who might
be reacting to their inability to actually draw a breath due to snotty airways?
(without the presence of pollen in their lower bronchlal passages.)

Get a vacuum cleaner.

An industrial wet and dry vacuum cleaner.

Rather than setting off explosives to get rid of the build up, suck it out instead.

mollwollfumble said:

Idea from scifi.

Given that most high explosives are 100% organic.

eg. Nitrocellulose, nitrocotton, ammonium nitrate + biodiesel, trinitrotoluene, dynamite (originally TNT stabilised with sawdust)

What are the prospects for genetic modification of a plant, or plant + bacteria combination, to grow high explosive?

I think its possible, but it may take some time though.

Ogmog said:

roughbarked said:

Ogmog said:

iF pollen’s a Natural Explosive
why do I have to blow my own nose
every morning during the Spring? )-: honk

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/848792

https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1164/arrd.1977.115.4.609

Although I am blessedly normally unaffected by the effects of pollen,
this year the pollen count has been particularly abundant, so while
all about me are puffy eyed and sneezing, even I have been waking
up with a stuft up head. (honk)

I’m cursed with chronic bronchitis that rears its ugly head whenever
I experience difficulty drawing an unobstructed breath. eg a cold or flu,
so although I don’t have asthma in the classic sense, I can commiserate.

My Question Is:
Might the investigation relating pollen to asthma be skewed by people
that might be choking, wheezing, even turning blue & dying, who might
be reacting to their inability to actually draw a breath due to snotty airways?
(without the presence of pollen in their lower bronchlal passages.)

Not sure. Start a new thread or ask a doctor.

I’m guessing the main problem here would be how toxic to life these chemicals are when at the concentrations required to explode.

If you are going to need to refine or distill the chemicals from organic matter, it might just be easier to make the chemicals from scratch?

Cody’s Lab showed how easy it is to make gun powder (KNO3) from mostly only locally sourced materials, such as a compost heap and wood ash.

Lary said:

I’m guessing the main problem here would be how toxic to life these chemicals are when at the concentrations required to explode.

If you are going to need to refine or distill the chemicals from organic matter, it might just be easier to make the chemicals from scratch?

Cody’s Lab showed how easy it is to make gun powder (KNO3) from mostly only locally sourced materials, such as a compost heap and wood ash.

This is very easy to make:
Nitrogen triiodide is the inorganic compound with the formula NI₃. It is an extremely sensitive contact explosive: small quantities explode with a loud, sharp snap when touched even lightly, releasing a purple cloud of iodine vapor; it can even be detonated by alpha radiation. NI₃ has a complex structural chemistry that is difficult to study because of the instability of the derivatives.

right – finally a real thread

wookiemeister said:

right – finally a real thread

LOL