Imaginary Weapons: A Journey Through the Pentagon’s Scientific Underworld (Nation Books, 2006)

How did a fluke experiment in 1998, involving a used dental X-ray machine and a dubiously obtained sample of radioactive material called hafnium, become the Pentagon’s number one pet weapons project within five years? And why did this occur in spite of objections from the nation’s top scientists?

In Imaginary Weapons, Sharon Weinberger—no stranger to harebrained military schemes from her years covering the Pentagon—takes us on a wild ride through the hidden underworld of official fringe science in America. From antimatter weapons to psychic warriors, Weinberger shows that the U.S. government is increasingly susceptible to outlandish claims. But the isomer weapon—a futuristic device that would rival the power of a nuclear bomb—may be the strangest case of them all.

The isomer bomb’s strange history is a detective story that begins in communist-era Romania and ends in the E-Ring of the Pentagon, the corridor that houses the inner circle of the Defense Department’s leadership.

Featuring exclusive access to original source materials—including interviews, internal Pentagon documents, and e-mails—Weinberger exposes the “true believers” in the military and intelligence community who thoughts the isomer bomb would be the super-weapons that would help win the War on Terror.

Media coverage of Imaginary Weapons

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, C-Span Book TV, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Majority Report on Air America Radio, Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio, Jim Bohannon Show, John Batchelor Show, BBC’s The World, Wiconsin Public Radio, Culture Shocks, KOPT 1600 AM Oregon Progresive Talk, Talk of Iowa (Iowa Public Radio), KPCW Utah Public Radio, Focus 580 Illionois Public Radio, WJBC in Bloomington, Il., and more….

Reviews of Imaginary Weapons

New York Times Book Review, Village Voice, Washington City Paper, New Scientist, Daily Iowan, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, The Agonist, Secrecy News…..