How can a terrorist cult genetically engineer human bombs?

Question

A nihilistic organization founded by a preacher, Solf J. Kimblee, has reasoned that human beings have fallen short of God's true purpose. Since the betrayal by Adam and Eve, all people are born with original sin and are destined to commit evil at some point in their lives. Therefore, life itself is a sin, and it is the duty of God-loving people to return their brothers and sisters to the earth. They are specifically known for using suicide bombers for their cause. Sadly, technology has reached the point where it is able to detect bombs on individuals, even ones being carried inside the body.

This heinous cult has developed a way to create biological human bombs to bypass technology. Using genetic shenanigans, they have found a way to encode the ability to explode into a person's DNA in utero, like that of a voltorb. This would allow it to avoid being detected by government entities. The cult cannot use animals for this task, as the preservation of the creator's innocent creatures should be of utmost paramount. Therefore, the only logical conclusion would be to use human children.

These future human bombs would be isolated from the outside world and raised to believe that it is an evil place corrupted by sin. Death is the greatest gift they could give to their fellow humans, and that their sacrifice is of the highest honor. At a certain age, they would be sent into the world at designated high population targets. Through a certain trigger, the individual would carry out their duty and explode, killing as many as possible.

How can this group create human bombs in this way?

Answer 1

I think you should give up on this.

First, if technology has made traditional suicide bomber impractical, it will almost certainly detect your human bombs as well. Many explosives are plastic or can be plasticized so you can disguise them as almost anything and hide them within almost anything. And you can try to smuggle the precursors instead of the actual explosives. Or in diluted form within something harmless. If detection is not fooled by this, hiding the explosives within the human body will not fool it. In fact since it is "natural" it will be connected to the awfully messy human metabolism and will almost certainly be easier to detect by chemical detectors or dogs.

Second, the mass you can replace with high explosive without killing the human is limited. Too limited to achieve much more than a really cool way to lose all your followers. Which with some thought you could achieve in some other way within few days for a small fraction of the cost. Just strap explosives on them and blow them up on those government checkpoints that are stopping them, for example.

Third, high explosives are probably not biologically viable. You'd be stuck with some sort of fuel oxidiser combo. Which would mostly make your people highly flammable. Might actually be more spectacular and cool than actual explosives if used right but not what you want. And it would be hard to keep your people from spontaneously combusting before you want them to. They'd frankly be a fire hazard. And dogs will probably smell the oxidiser anyway.

Fourth, this kind of a genetic project is way too time consuming and extensive for someone that must be on every government watch list on Earth to pull off without somebody finding out. Even if they cannot catch you personally, they should be able to stop your plan from working out. Even a hint of what you are trying to achieve would result on people specifically checking for human bombs at checkpoints.

Fifth, if you are okay with using a gene engineered biological weapon instead of a bomb then use a gene engineered biological weapon instead of a bomb. Just make a deadly and contagious biological weapon and engineer your people to be asymptomatic carriers. Then have them spread around and bring DEATH with them. Biological weapons are self propagating and self increasing. And self-evolving. For most people that is a major reason to NOT use them. Your preacher... he would really love that.

Answer 2

Viral Bomb

Instead of exploding, you engineer people to be resistant to a disease but still viable carriers.

While they look for explosives, your weapon is breathing an engineered targeted virus all over everybody.

Not as flashy as an explosion but far more terrifying which is the point.

Answer 3

You might be stretching scripture for this one: To have your human bombs undetected, the explosive material would need to be absent at the time of scanning (ingress into an area, most likely) and then exist in bulk at zero hour (to maximise damage) - you therefore need some blazingly fast metabolizing going on, and your best bet for this is your gut, more specifically the bacteria within. They might be considered part of you, and therefore part of your sin, but that's advance theology to argue....

Genengineering these gut bacteria would be much more manageable, and the necessary raw substances might be easier to ingest than to inject or otherwise be made available to in-tissue handling, thus facilitating the whole process by many orders of magnitude. The raw substances (which are not on the explosives list, and not searched for) need not be totally untoxic, as the vessels are made to break anyways, so you have a wide array of choices. The gut bacteria get fed and cultured in the weeks preceding zero hour with a special diet so they are at maximum metabolic efficiency. The vessels then enter the target area, down a specially designed shake, and do some light walking to help with digestion. The ingestion of one or more catalysts may also be necessary. Depending on the explosive produced, you may need a trigger, but this should be easy to solve using very small amounts of explosive as found in children's toy-guns. How to get the trigger and explosive together? - well - there is a level of sacrifice involved.

Answer 4

In Unwind by Neil Shusterman, there are terrorists called 'clappers' who inject themselves with nitroglycerin-like compounds that explode on shock and impact. They clap violently and blow up in a public place.

I don't think that would work (enough concentration to explode in the blood would poison you before you could get there, and there isn't enough oxygen). But you could engineer large tumors that fill with nitroglycerin, mercury fulminate, trinitrotoluene, whatever's easiest. These would be located in the lungs: you'd breathe deeply, filling them with air, then detonate them by concussion. These would be visible on certain scans, though.

The problem with explosives is they need oxygen and they need large concentration. You could instead opt for a bioweapon, which would definitely be possible. When they swallow a pill of a certain chemical, all of their cells begin to produce a gas that contains airborne engineered super-smallpox.

A nuclear bomb would be almost impossible. A nuke is mostly made of plastic explosive charges (like C-4) that surround 2 cores of plutonium. When the C-4 explodes, it violently compresses the 2 plutonium cores, starting the chain reaction, then forces them together until the critical mass is exceeded. The bomb then contains the explosion until the chain reaction has progressed far enough. In an organic bomb, the charges wouldn't be shaped correctly to direct the plutonium cores together, nor would it be powerful enough (and we still have the problem of making explosive charges in the body at all). The body also isn't powerful enough to hold the plutonium together for the few microseconds it needs to fully explode. The bomb would just throw molten plutonium around a 100 meter radius, which would be bad, but not a nuke.

Other options: poison gas, psychological adrenaline bomb (makes you immune to pain and you go on a killing rampage), spontaneous combustion and running around burning people.

Answer 5

Modify existing body parts

You 'could' modify existing glands by splicing in genes from toxic jellyfish or insects, or even snakes, so that the individuals have small quantities of venom contained at different parts of their bodies. These chemicals, when released into the blood, if not exploding like a mortar shell, could at least be exhaled as a deadly nerve agent, killing the child and many around them.

The glandular release could be triggerred by infection with a retro virus.

Glands that contain secretions are many. Perhaps a male childs seminal vesicle could be repurposed, meaning they have to die before reaching sexual maturity or else they will ejaculate the poisen.

from wikipedia[

'seminal fluid contains several components besides spermatozoa: proteolytic and other enzymes as well as fructose are elements of seminal fluid which promote the survival of spermatozoa, and provide a medium through which they can move or "swim". Semen is produced and originates from the seminal vesicle, which is located in the pelvis.'

Answer 6

There was an old episode on a sci-fi show maybe star trek that was similar. They genetically modified terrorists, it was undetectable, and I think the logic was that you could split the atoms in you body or something, it caused a chain reaction and a small nuclear explosion. There was also an episode of star gate sg1 in the first couple seasons where they sent a kid through that had naquida the material similar to uruanium in her blood that slowly formed a tumor then was meant to detonate