SPREADING A LITTLE SUNSHINE

This comes from New Scientist via Ananova that US military chiefs have considered developing an 'aphrodisiac' chemical weapon that would make enemy troops sexually irresistible to each other. The Sunshine Project, which exposes research into chemical and biological weapons, revealed the plans. Provoking widespread homosexual behaviour among troops would cause a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale, the proposal says. Other ideas included

* chemical weapons that attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats to troop positions, making them uninhabitable;

US defence relies on breathtaking innovation

* a chemical that caused 'severe and lasting halitosis', to identify guerrillas trying to blend in with civilians;

* a process for making troops' skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight.

The proposals, from the US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, apparently date from 1994. The lab sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called "harassing, annoying and 'bad guy'-identifying chemicals". Sunshine Project spokesman Edward Hammond said it was not known if the proposed six-year research plan was pursued.

Sunshine Project: "distasteful but completely non-lethal" fun with gay spray?

The IPKat has long wondered what sorts of inventions are barred from patentability under the Patents Act 1977, section 1(3) (= European Patent Convention, Article 53) as being "an invention the commercial exploitation of which would be contrary to public policy or morality". Now he thinks he knows. Mischievous Merpel says: "Just think what fun you can have if you spray one bunch of people with the aphrodisiac spray and the other bunch with halitosis chemical ..."

Sunshine Project official website here
More on the Sunshine Project here
Other Sunshine Projects here and here