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Molecular Disrupter DeviceThe Molecular Disrupter Device is a fictional weapon of mass destruction featured in the Ender's Game series of science fiction novels by Orson Scott Card. Given the awkwardness of saying "molecular disrupter device" or "molecular detachment device", the name was abbreviated to "M. D. Device", which mutated into "The Little Doctor" and "Dr. Device". Motivation for creation After the devastation caused by two invasions by an ant-like extraterrestrial race known formally as "Formics" and informally as "Buggers", Earth's military and scientific minds sought a way to permanently neutralize the threat from the Formics. Diplomacy was not an option because of the radically different methods of communication employed by the two species. Humanity picked up several important pieces of technology from the Formic equipment and behavioral patterns used in the invasions, including the ability to control gravity and the possibility of faster-than-light communication. Mechanism A basic explanation of the function of the Little Doctor appears in Ender's Game. The device produces a beam whose focus point has the ability to disrupt the bonds between atoms in molecules. The disruption creates a field in which nearby molecules are also destroyed. Each molecule provides the fodder to destroy adjacent ones. In the absence of more nearby mass, as in the vacuum of space, the field dissipates rapidly. A tightly-clustered collection of ships could be destroyed by targeting the M.D. Device on the one in the middle, relying on the mass of each ship to give the wave enough of a boost to reach the next ship. In Ender's Game, the only thing said about the weapon's physical characteristics is that it employs a directed energy beam; "it can't shoot around corners," Ender deduces. Three thousand years later, in Children of the Mind, it has become a missile, small enough to fit inside a small room; a removable section of casing allows it to be shut off, and instructions on how to do so are printed all over its surface. Deployments of M. D. Devices The M.D. Device was dispatched with several interstellar fleets toward the Formic home world. The ships were also equipped with ansibles, allowing Earth to develop the strategies and leaders needed for battle while the fighting force was still in transit. From Battle School, Ender Wiggin remotely ordered the use of the Device on the enemy planet, resulting in the planet's complete destruction. The Device had not been previously tested on an object of such scale. In Xenocide, the Starways Congress deploys a fleet to destroy the planet Lusitania. The planet is host to a sentient species known as the Pequeninos. In spite of humanity's attempt to hide the existence of interplanetary travel, the Pequeninos see spaceships and demand the technology to travel the stars. At that point, the human scientists on Lusitania had already violated a directive that forbade the transfer of technologies to less-advanced species. All life on Lusitania is infected with a virus, the "descolada". If anyone, human or Pequenino, is allowed to leave the planet, the virus will spread to other worlds. By the end of the book, Peter Wiggin and Si Wang-mu are able to persuade the admiral of the fleet not to use the weapon, saving Lusitania and preventing a second xenocide.
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