Red Mercury Molecular Dissassociation Weapon?

The New York Times Magazine has a fascinating story about ISIS efforts to get their hands on a mysterious and powerful superweapon called Red Mercury. 

The problem is that by consensus among scientific authorities, Red Mercury doesn't exist.

 And yet that hasn't stopped the legend of Red Mercury, touted by sources from Nazi conspiracy theorists to former Manhattan Project scientists, as having magical properties.

 Middle East weapons traders have even spun elaborate stories for its properties (ranging from thermonuclear explosive properties to sexual enhancement) and origins and sources (from Soviet weapons labs to Roman graveyards). 

What can account for the enduring myth of Red Mercury — is it rampant scientific illiteracy, the power of urban legend and shared myth, or something else?

 Samuel T. Cohen, the "father of the neutron bomb", claimed for some time that red mercury is a powerful explosive-like chemical known as a ballotechnic.

 The energy released during its reaction is allegedly enough to directly compress the secondary without the need for a fission primary in a thermonuclear weapon.

The curious tale of Red Mercury

by Chris Camp