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Oh, I pretty sure standard firearms can't harm them. I'm also pretty sure no vampire would want to take a 120mm enriched uranium tungsten round from an M1A2 Abrams tank. I suspect a high velocity armor piercing round from a 50 caliber sniper rifle would at least have some effect. Nonetheless, the point of my earlier post was ammunition that would collapse on impact, spreading the flammable and volatile material around the impact area.

Really, why would vampires have worried about detection for millenia if nothing short of nuclear weaponry could harm them? It would be consistent with SM's mythos that some of the legends of how vampires can be killed are based on real events.

andypalmer wrote:Really, why would vampires have worried about detection for millenia if nothing short of nuclear weaponry could harm them? It would be consistent with SM's mythos that some of the legends of how vampires can be killed are based on real events.

Not necessarily.

If people knew about them, chances are people would try to figure out ways of killing them. So perhaps they (the vamps) have little to fear from current technology, but they could cause a commotion big enough to spur the creation of new ones with potentially disastrous results. If the humans remain unaware of their threat, then they needn't worry about the humans making anything specifically to hurt them.

Edwards Ragazza wrote:My discrepancy was Did Edward hear Bree when she was trying to tell him about the Volturi? Or did he not hear because he was so blocked everything out after what just happened and was focusing on Bella? Because I never had the impression that Bree was talking to Edward the whole time the Volturi were there.

I think that he did hear what she said... as Bella desriebs in BD... it's easier for a vampire to concentrate on more than one thing at once... so I think he could concentrate on what Bree was telling him, and keep an eye on Bella.

I got so frustrated by the fact Bree kept saying Edward's hair was red... Bella describes it as bronze coloured... and so must Jess as she understood which one of the Cullen's Bella was aksing about. Did this get to anyone else or just me?

Yeah I never thought of that. sorry. Just reading it that stuck out like a sore thumb... cause from Bella's description of him, I fell in love with Edward so much. It just wasn't right him being described less than perfectly

andypalmer wrote:A few gaps in your logic. Where does SM state that her vampires are made of diamond? I'll give you some time to look. Go ahead. Hmm. No luck?
Just because the outer shell of vampires is hard and has some diamond-like visual qualities does not mean that they share key chemical qualities, such as boiling point and general flammability nor even their tensile strength or toughness (which for diamonds, is only rated fair). The refractive argument was a huge stretch as well.

The mysterious and enigmatic Ms. December would be the one to track down the source of the quote, but Ms. Meyer is on record as stating that vampire skin is "Like diamond, only harder." Note the deliberate wording of the phrase. Try shooting diamond with any form of ammunition on earth sometime. The bullet will break first.

As far as vampires and detection goes, I believe you and I had this discussion on the science thread, Rings. At least, I think we did. If we didn't, please let me know - it's a favorite pet subject of mine ^_^

- Knives

Knives wrote:Try shooting diamond with any form of ammunition on earth sometime. The bullet will break first.

I am afraid you are sorely mistaken. As I stated before, the toughness rating of diamonds is far from extraordinary. While a typical bullet won't shatter a diamond, bullets will chip pieces off; high velocity armor piercing ammunition will chip even larger pieces off. It's basic physics.

ETA
There is this remark of Stephenie's in PC #6;

Stephenie wrote:A: They sparkle because they have turned to substance that is somewhat like diamond. Their bodies have hardened, frozen into a kind of living stone. Each little cell in their skin has become a separate facet that reflects the light. These facets have a prism-like quality–they throw rainbows as they glitter.

Would that be what you were thinking of, or did she specifically say "like diamond only harder"?