Let’s start by acknowledging that war is bad. People die, buildings are destroyed, stuff blows up and burns. But if you are going to have a war, is it possible to control the damage? Is it possible to kill only the bad guys without harming nearby civilians? Is it possible to destroy one building and leave the building next door unharmed?

Here is a piece of technology that helps to limit the collateral damage of war, and it is straight out of the stone age:

France Dropping Concrete Bombs In Libya

The bomb is a simple hunk of concrete weighing 300 kilograms. And here is the Stuff of Genius:

“The aim of this munition … is to use the effect of the impact while limiting the risk of collateral damage,” Burkhard said. “It is a very precise strike. There is no, or very little, shrapnel thrown out.”

So you drop the bomb from 30,000 feet using a laser-guided targeting system. As it falls, the bomb develops a tremendous amount of kinetic energy. When it hits a vehicle it can “literally crush Gadhafi’s tanks without causing massive explosions that can harm nearby civilians.”

See also: How Smart Bombs Work