Recently in Explosives Category

Defense-related research projects at Missouri S&T stand to gain $15 million through the Defense Appropriations bill, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week. According to a press release from U.S. Rep. Joann Emerson, whose 8th Congressional District includes Rolla, the bill contains $3 million for power generation and storage systems, $3 million for robotic weapons systems, $3 million for heat-resistant materials used in hypersonic flight and $6 million to detect and track explosive materials such as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), a topic we wrote about a few days ago.

OK, try this one:

Phillip Mulligan is trying to make improvised explosive devices more powerful with the idea of eventually making them less deadly.

Read the full story here.

Must-see TV: tonight's premiere episode of The Detonators, a new Discovery Channel series featuring our resident explosives expert and one of his former students. The program begins at 7 p.m. Rolla Standard Time (otherwise known as Central Standard Time) today (Wednesday, Jan. 28) and will air every Wednesday at the same time.

So, record American Idol if you must, but don't miss this debut of Paul Worsey and Braden Lusk as they burst onto the television scene.

If you can't wait until the show's premiere, here's a little promo to whet your appetite:

Watch The Detonators blow up a car at the S&T Experimental Mine.

He's not exactly Doc Hollywood, but S&T's resident explosives expert Paul Worsey will soon hit cable TV with a bang.

Worsey -- pictured plugging his ears in this St. Louis Post-Dispatch photo from a few years ago -- will soon co-host a 13-week series on the Discovery Channel called "The Detonators" (official scoop). His co-host, Braden Lusk, is a former student of Worsey's who now teaches mining engineering at the University of Kentucky. Together on "The Detonators," the two profs will talk to the blasters behind such structures as urban skyscrapers, massive steel bridges and giant stadiums. They'll also give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the demolitions.

As Post-Dispatch higher ed reporter Kavita Kumar points out in a recent post on the Post's blog The Grade, Worsey "has blown up bridges, trucks, rubber snakes, dead chickens, and lots and lots of other things. So it's perhaps not surprising that the Discovery Channel -- the same people who have brought us Man vs. Wild, Survivorman, Verminators, and Dirty Jobs -- has found a kindred spirit in him."

Kumar calls Worsey "the doctor of destruction." And while Worsey certainly enjoys his work -- who wouldn't want to blow stuff up? -- he's not as nefarious as that moniker or his mad-scientist laugh would imply. He's just your average happy-go-lucky, barrel-chested Brit who happens to have an explosive personality.

Here's a more recent photo of Worsey with Lusk during filming on location at Missouri S&T's Experimental Mine. The watermelon in Worsey's grasp was later blown to smithereens. Eat your heart out, Gallagher.

"The Detonators" is scheduled to begin airing sometime during the first quarter of 2009. Stay tuned to this blog for updates.

This is what happens when you are a TV producer and you challenge Dr. Paul Worsey, explosives expert, to blow up a Ford Escort. (Check the explosives archives on the right side of the page for more stuff about S&T explosives.)

P.S. Later this week, we'll have a link to a story about an S&T graduate student who is helping to design a bicycle that makes harvesting grain easier for African women and some researchy stuff about Dr. Renaldo Luna, who recently explained liquefaction (and why it's bad for bridges during an earthquake) to us.

P.P.S. That reminds us, this week we're hosting a big earthquake conference on campus. We'll try to bring you an interesting report on that as well.

Explosives Camp director Paul Worsey instructed one of the high school students to get ready to activate the firing unit, which was connected to the shot cable, which was connected to the detonator, which was connected to the detonating cord – which, finally, was connected to several cans filled with ether. After Worsey’s last warning of “Fire in the hole!” was sounded, a frighteningly loud boom erupted, accompanied by a huge ball of red fire and black smoke.

A rig carrying an 85-ton contraption arrived in Rolla today. The "superload" delivery was made to the mining engineering department, which plans to use the cargo shown here for explosives testing. The explosives will be placed inside this huge chamber. UMR experts will monitor the explosions and conduct studies. The testing chamber wasn't being used at a Utah location and the Air Force provided a grant to cover its transporation to Rolla.

P.S. That rig has a lot more than 18-wheels on it, doesn't it?

... doesn't mean mainstream media will stop talking about UMR's Explosives Camp.

Come September, there are likely to be some raised eyebrows among the nation's schoolteachers when they hear some of the answers to the question, "What did you do this summer?" ... "I blew up some stuff."

John Schwartz of the New York Times says Camp Winnigootchee was never like this.

Elsewhere:

The Associated Press covered UMR's It's a Girl's Thing camp.

And:

The Springfield News-Leader has the story about a UMR student who proposed marriage at Bass Pro.

UMR's Explosives Camp gets some attention today from the biggest blog in the universe, Boing Boing. Thanks also to Make, where the post about NPR's recent report about Explosives Camp caught Boing Boing's attention.

And just in case you haven't seen enough about Explosive Camp, take a look at this: