11/12   In the movie "Outbreak" they showed that the US have a bomb that can
        wipe out a small city and all the virus/germs in that city.  Is that
        for real?  It's not a nuke but just a very powerful bomb.  What can't
        we drop those on Afghanistan?  I'd be curious to find out just how
        many of those we need to cover every square inch of aghanistan.
        \_ the daisy cutter bomb (I think) is one of the largest
                conventional bombs around.
                conventional bombs around.  only 600 yards though
        \_ That's Hollywood.  Reality is the air-fuel bomb which spread a
           petroleum based fuel in the air as a mist over an area about the
           size of a football field and then ignites it.  You get a fire flash,
           followed by an explosion, followed by a vacuum and then an implosion
           as the air rushes back in.  But hardly "wipe out a whole city and
           all the virii/germs".  Nuh uh.
           \_ Does this air-fuel bomb come in the form of a bomb?  Or do you
              need to spray the fuel with a nozzel on a plane for a couple
              minutes and then ignite it with a bomb?
                \_ It's a bomb.  It does it's own fuel spraying, igniting,etc
        \_ a neutron bomb?
        \_ is there a non-biological weapon that can wipe out only
           biological things (e.g. radiation) while keeping everything else
           intact?
           \_ yes, it's called a neutron bomb.
              \_ Can it kill virus and prions too?
                 \_ what's a prion?
                    \_ The thing that causes mad cow disease.
                 \_ No one's ever used one.  Who can say?
                 \_ Prions aren't alive.  Which is part of the reason they're
                    so hard to get rid of.
                    \_"Alive" and "Dead" are pretty subjective terms
                    Is a virus alive? Hard to say. A Prion is similar
                    to a virus in the sense that both use a host's
                    resources to reproduce itself. A Prion however is
                    a much simpler catalytic reaction. A virus uses
                    much more complex cellular machinery for infection.
                    I'm not quite sure where you draw the line though.