Spinach effective in helping detect landmines, according to MIT field work

Tuesday, November 1st 2016 - 10:18 UTC

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Scientists have transformed the humble spinach plant into a bomb detector. By embedding tiny tubes in the plants' leaves, they can be made to pick up chemicals called nitro-aromatics, which are found in landmines and buried munitions. Real-time information can then be wirelessly relayed to a handheld device. Read full article

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Marti Llazo
Interesting theory but still not ready for prime time. The amount of residual nitroaromatic material around most intact, long-resting antipersonnel mines is extremely difficult to detect, even for a smart spinach, and other quotidian materials such as traces of common fertiliser generate responses nearly identical to those of the mine materials. But there is always someone who will come up with an idea like “Hey, let's plant food crops in the minefields!”
Nov 01st, 2016 - 01:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Voice
I reckon the planters will detect the mines first...
Nov 01st, 2016 - 01:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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