Miekle

I read this in the USA TODAY was a rather interesting article. Not sure why they added some of the stuff in they did but it's still cool to know the stuff technology can do today.

by Mimi Hall
"Cutting-edge science may protect homeland"


When June Medford came up with the idea to use tiny weeds as weapons in the war against terrorism, she figured most people would call it a joke. But the federal government didn't laugh.

Now, armed with half million-dollar grant from the Pentagon, the Colorado State University plant biologist is trying to genetically engineer Arabidopsis plants to change color rapidly if they sense a biological or chemical agent.

If her plan works, the technology could be used to turn forest evergreens, backyard shrubs or even pond algae into sentinels for scientists. One day, everyone in America might be able to use cheap houseplant as an early-warning system. It could be the proverbial canary in a coal mine for the post-Sept.. 11 age.

"A lot of us started thinking differently after 9/11," Medford says. When she ran the idea by government officials, "they said, 'Well, lets give it a try, because if it does work, it could make a huge difference.' "

Medford's Fort Collins, Colo., laboratory is among scores across the country where scientists and entreptreneures are working on products that could help the government prevent or respond to another terrorist attack.

In Richmond, Va., a biologist is trapping insects such as beetles, crickets, bees and moths to see whether they could be used as environmental monitors of biological and chemical agents. In Menlo Park. Calif., researchers are trying to develop a handheld coice-recognition translator that could help federal border agents communicate with foreigners seeking to enter the United States. Outside Chicago, workers at a small research company are seeking to devise an inexpensive DNA detector that could be used by people with no background in molecular biology to diagnose, quickly and accurately, an infectious disease such as smallpox.

These efforts sound like they belong in a sciencefiction movie. But they're all real-life, cutting-edge projects, funded partially by government grants.

Officials acknowledge that some of the projects won't pan out. But they say government invest,emt in high-tech research is worthwhile. Some of the projects could be useful additions to the war on terrorism; others could recolutionize the way officials protect the nation from attack.

Anti-terror weeds and bugs

Under the terms of Medford's grant, she has 18 months to figure out how to make her weeds tattle on terrorists. If one of her plants noticed a deadly nerve agent such as sarin gas, it would probably be too late to help people nearby. But if it sensed anthrax in the air, people could know they were exposed before showing symptoms. That would give them more time to take antibiotics.

Medford's not using real biological and chemical agents in her experiments, which are aimed at causing the rapid breakdown of chlorophyll. She's using estrogen, because experiments have found it will prompt the "de-greening circuit" in plants. That has prompted jokes from friends who tell her, "Estrogen could be a terrorist agent."

>>At virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, biologist Karen Kester has worked for two years to see whether insects can deliver information about hazardous or deadly agents in the soil, on the ground or in the air. Funded by a $1 million Pentagon grant, she uses black lights, sticky papers and traps to collect more than two dozen species of bugs.
The bugs are "like little sponges or dust mops," Kester says. If officials suspected a toxin had been released in a building or park, they could mobilize teams of emergency workers in protective suits to swab for samples. Or the could let the bugs crawl and fly around, picking up samples, and then collect them for tests. For routine monitoring, she says, bugs could be used as part of a "24/7 sampling scheme."


Sorry if there are any typos's I just typed it up from what I was reading couldn't find the online article.

Daval

this is pretty neat. Technology is astounding.

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ratbastid

Any guy who's in a relationship with a woman for more than a month can tell you for <i>damn</i> sure that Estrogen can be a terrorist agent!

krwlz

While this is pretty cool, it just doesn't seem real effective....

platypus

They're gonna genetically engineer "<b>Arab</b>idopsis" plants to help fight terrorists? Looks like the name's already been engineered.

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Kllr Wolf

I think if they could get plants to work it would be an effective and easy way to tell to even to those not traind in that field.

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