Nothing newfangled like a barcode scanner here. No, this is looking back to something ancient.

An ancient toy has inspired a powerful new weapon that might be used for destroying submarines or even eliminating tumors. It’s similar to the ancient Newton’s cradle. Remember those balls suspended by wires? Scientists have created a powerful weapon for soldiers and doctors and they call it the “sound bullet.”

Researchers created rows of stainless steel ball bearings in small area with weights attached at the ends to change the pressure on each row. A small ball was dropped about eight inches onto the ball bearings and researchers used a high-speed camera to watch the pressure waves focus on a single spot.

Researchers focused all of the sound waves onto one specific area and they amplified those waves over 100 times than what any other metamaterial had ever created.