Nanotech Device Mimics Dog's Nose to Detect Explosives.
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[IMG]http://images.sciencedaily.com/2012/11/121120100421.jpg[/IMG]
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Concept illustration of the microscale free-surface microfluidic channel as it concentrates vapor molecules that bind to nanoparticles inside a chamber. A laser beam detects the nanoparticles, which amplify a spectral signature of the detected molecules. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Santa Barbara)
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Portable, accurate, and highly sensitive devices that sniff out vapors from explosives and other substances could become as commonplace as smoke detectors in public places, thanks to researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara.
Researchers at UCSB, led by professors Carl Meinhart of mechanical engineering and Martin Moskovits of chemistry, have designed a detector that uses microfluidic nanotechnology to mimic the biological mechanism behind canine scent receptors. The device is both highly sensitive to trace amounts of certain vapor molecules, and able to tell a specific substance apart from similar molecules.
"Dogs are still the gold standard for scent detection of explosives. But like a person, a dog can have a good day or a bad day, get tired or distracted," said Meinhart. "We have developed a device with the same or better sensitivity as a dog's nose that feeds into a computer to report exactly what kind of molecule it's detecting." The key to their technology, explained Meinhart, is in the merging of principles from mechanical engineering and chemistry in a collaboration made possible by UCSB's Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies.
Results published this month in Analytical Chemistry show that their device can detect airborne molecules of a chemical called 2,4-dinitrotoluene, the primary vapor emanating from TNT-based explosives. The human nose cannot detect such minute amounts of a substance, but "sniffer" dogs have long been used to track these types of molecules. Their technology is inspired by the biological design and microscale size of the canine olfactory mucus layer, which absorbs and then concentrates airborne molecules.
"The device is capable of real-time detection and identification of certain types of molecules at concentrations of 1 ppb or below. Its specificity and sensitivity are unparalleled," said Dr. Brian Piorek, former mechanical engineering doctoral student in Meinhart's laboratory and Chief Scientist at Santa Barbara-based SpectraFluidics, Inc . The technology has been patented and exclusively licensed to SpectraFluidics, a company that Piorek co-founded in 2008 with private investors.
"Our research project not only brings different disciplines together to develop something new, but it also creates jobs for the local community and hopefully benefits society in general," commented Meinhart.
Packaged on a fingerprint-sized silicon microchip and fabricated at UCSB's state-of-the-art cleanroom facility, the underlying technology combines free-surface microfluidics and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to capture and identify molecules. A microscale channel of liquid absorbs and concentrates the molecules by up to six orders of magnitude. Once the vapor molecules are absorbed into the microchannel, they interact with nanoparticles that amplify their spectral signature when excited by laser light. A computer database of spectral signatures identifies what kind of molecule has been captured.
"The device consists of two parts," explained Moskovits. "There's a microchannel, which is like a tiny river that we use to trap the molecules and present them to the other part, a mini spectrometer powered by a laser that detects them. These microchannels are twenty times smaller than the thickness of a human hair."
"The technology could be used to detect a very wide variety of molecules," said Meinhart. "The applications could extend to certain disease diagnosis or narcotics detection, to name a few."
Moskovits added, "The paper we published focused on explosives, but it doesn't have to be explosives. It could detect molecules from someone's breath that may indicate disease, for example, or food that has spoiled."
The fundamental research was developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration between Professors Meinhart and Moskovits, and carried out by former doctoral researchers Dr. Piorek and Dr. Seung-Joon Lee. Their project was funded in part by UCSB's Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies through the Army Research Office and DARPA.
[B]Journal:[/B]
Brian D. Piorek, Seung Joon Lee, Martin Moskovits, Carl D. Meinhart. Free-Surface Microfluidics/Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Real-Time Trace Vapor Detection of Explosives. Analytical Chemistry, 2012; 84 (22): 9700 [URL="http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac302497y"]DOI: 10.1021/ac302497y[/URL]
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[url]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121120100421.htm[/url]
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I love it when Farnsworth brings us all this magnificent science
Now we dont have to send cute dogs in to risk getting themselves blown up :3 Yaaay :D
If this hardware is upgraded to detect a wider variety of chemicals, probably of an organic nature, we might end up with a reliable replacement augment for people who blew up their noses or snorted too much coke (I assume it'd be safer to take coke as a suppository).
All we need now is a device that can simulate electrical signals associated with smells when you plug into your nostrils, and we'd have a wireless nanose machine with which to smell the world from the safety of our own homes.
[QUOTE=ironman17;38540898] we'd have a wireless nanose machine with which to smell the world from the safety of our own homes.[/QUOTE]
brazilian fart porn would be taken to a whole new level
yay police will be able to detect .00001 grams of marijuana in your pocket now
[QUOTE=mini me;38542717]brazilian fart porn would be taken to a whole new level[/QUOTE]
I was thinking more of the smell of steam and burning diesel in some industrial zone, or the scent of musty cobwebs in the depths of a dead castle.
But seriously, playing a game that can simulate smells would be pretty cool in games like survival horror or ones with an emphasis on exploration, like if you were being hunted by werewolves and the best indication of them being near would be the smell of wet dog, or if the aroma of horker stew wafted across the tundra from a nearby Stormcloak camp, or the smell of smoke adding immersion to a place that was on fire. It goes without saying that introducing smell as a way to experience games would add a whole other level to gaming in general; not just for immersing oneself in a world, but also for purposes of finding things that cannot easily be found through sight and sound. I hope it becomes a thing in future gaming, even if it makes sewer levels all the more unpleasant.
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