Engineered Bacteria Glows To Reveal Land Mines 248
Posted
by
kdawson
from the lamp-unto-your-feet dept.
from the lamp-unto-your-feet dept.
MikeChino writes "Sifting through minefields to remove hidden threats is a dangerous, tedious, and expensive process. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh recently announced that they have engineered a strain of bacteria that glows green in the presence of explosives, making mine detection a snap. The new strain of bacteria can be sprayed onto local affected areas or air-dropped over entire fields of mines. Within a few hours the bacteria strain begins to glow wherever traces of explosive chemicals are present."
Grey Goo 2.0? (Score:4, Funny)
Oh great ! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nice idea, but... (Score:1, Funny)
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Yet *another* source of light pollution.
Re:Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:anyone else see the problem... (Score:3, Funny)
Without RTFA:
1 - Rocks and nearby puppies.
2 - Bacteria are asexual. These bacteria will, however, be able to spread an "asexual agenda" among native bacteria, who will begin to glow in the presence of other objects, like discarded cans, to look cool and "green."
3- Except for puppies, the bacteria are harmless. Unless you like eating gunpowder or landmines.
4- More landmines! No, wait, they'll be outbred by normal bacteria soon enough.
Minesweeping (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pitch (Score:5, Funny)
Do they have a bacteria that can help me with FreeCell? I was already pretty good at Minesweeper.
Re:I'm surprised that this technology is available (Score:3, Funny)
I suspect that if that particular area was crop-dusted with the bacteria, the result would resemble a raggedly cut electroluminescent strip and be visible from space.
Great. (Score:3, Funny)
Now antiseptics will get on a list of controlled substances used to hide location of mines.
Re:Pitch (Score:5, Funny)
Well sure, but who has to go recover the goat? For that you need goat-recovering dogs.
Re:Pitch (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Pitch (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pitch (Score:4, Funny)
... on leashes.