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In a disreputable animated cartoon (I accidentally watch every episode of religiously), a mad scientist plans on killing all humans with a Neutrino bomb.

From context, this is a bomb that produces a blast of neutrinos that kill everyone on the planet at nearly the same time as the earth would be transparent to them. This of, course, is nonsense the earth would be nearly transparent but a lethal dose of neutrinos does not seem possible.

What would the effect of a neutrino bomb be? Assuming you could convert a kilo of say iron into a blast of neutrinos efficiently.

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    $\begingroup$ This should help $\endgroup$
    – By Symmetry
    Commented Jan 28, 2016 at 18:04
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    $\begingroup$ You really wouldn't want to be in the neutrino flux of a supernova... :-) $\endgroup$
    – CuriousOne
    Commented Jan 28, 2016 at 18:04
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    $\begingroup$ You can consider a high energy neutrino beam with an energy high enough to create resonant Z or W bosons in collisions with electrons. The cross section is then much higher than that of low energy neutrinos. $\endgroup$
    – Count Iblis
    Commented Jan 28, 2016 at 18:06
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    $\begingroup$ Neutrinos go through everything and very weakly interact with anything. I think that I once read somewhere that there is a good chance that no neutrino from the sun will ever interact with any atom in your body throughout your lifetime. Many, many neutrinos will pass through you in your lifetime, but hardly any will interact with the matter in your body. So if a mad scientist wanted to try to kill me with a bomb, I can't think of any type of bomb where my odds would probably be better of surviving than a bomb which put all of its energy into neutrinos. $\endgroup$
    – user93237
    Commented Jan 28, 2016 at 18:36
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    $\begingroup$ The cartoon is Rick and Morty $\endgroup$
    – King-Ink
    Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 0:34

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The other answers are adequate, answering not a thing to the first part of the question in your title: Would a neutrino bomb do anything?

But questions in titles are important, so I will reply to the second part, Or can weak force kill you? :

Of course the weak force can be lethal. The simplest example is the decay of neutrons , it is a weak decay , but neutrons from reactors can kill you, and certainly neutrons from a bomb. They decay weakly into protons, electrons and electron antineutrinos, and protons and electrons can do enormous damage to human cells and are part of the lethal radiation in nuclear bombs and accidents.

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The Earth is much more massive than its human population. If the Earth is transparent to neutrinos from this device, so are the people on it.

In supernova explosions the neutrino flux is large enough to have an important effect on fluid transport. (Kip Thorne discusses this in "Black Holes and Time Warps.") Here is an estimate that to receive a lethal dose of neutrino radiation from a core-collapse supernova, you'd have to start out within the outer envelope of the red giant progenitor star.

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There was also a science fiction story where somebody invented a neutrino bomb. It was claimed that such a bomb would turn all the matter in it to neutrinos, which would escape without damaging anything. The first part doesn't work (think baryon conservation) but the second does. It pointed out that a vacuum would be left, so air would rush in with a bang, informing the victim that he had been bombed. It was a parody on the neutron bombs of the time, which were designed to make many more neutrons and much less blast than other nuclear weapons. The neutrons would kill by radiation, but the limited blast limit the damage to buildings. How radioactive the site would be due to neutron activation was not broadly discussed.

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    $\begingroup$ If you had enough of them they could turn jug of Clorox bleach into a jug of Clorox with some sodium oxide and Xenon in it right? That could give someone a little fright. $\endgroup$
    – King-Ink
    Commented Jan 28, 2016 at 22:33
  • $\begingroup$ Neutron bombs still have a significant blast component. They were designed to counter massive waves of Russian tanks that at the time were poised to invade Europe. The neutron flux was designed to penetrate the armor of the tanks that might otherwise survive a conventional tactical nuke. $\endgroup$
    – Howard Miller
    Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 2:48

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