From John Schiffer and Donald Gemmell, Argonne National Laboratory
Your report on gamma-ray weapons raises concerns that may be premature (16 August, p 4). A group of us, using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne, have tried to reproduce the “isomer triggering” effect reported by Carl Collins and colleagues. Our X-ray beam was vastly more intense, so we should have seen an overwhelming signal. We saw none.
If the enormous X-ray flux from a synchrotron light source cannot trigger the decay, then perhaps there need not be concern about a new arms race. The essence of the scientific method is reproducibility. The discovery of fission in 1938 was confirmed at a number of laboratories within a few months. The “triggered decay” of the hafnium isomer was first reported 4 years ago and, so far, has been reproduced only by various combinations of the original authors.
Argonne, Illinois, US
