A new sensor being developed can detect bioweapons in sealed packages from a short distance away—calling to mind Star Trek's handheld scanning devices known as tricorders.
The bioweapon sensor was co-developed by physicist John Miller, Jr. at the University of Houston, Texas.
The futuristic device, conceived after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is meant to detect life signs in a sealed container without the risk of opening the suspect package (related feature: Inside 9/11 TV preview).
It can detect such signals from a sort distance—about two-fifths of an inch (a centimeter) away.
The sensor leverages the fact that biochemical reactions in cells emit electrical signals. These can be detected by scanning cells with oscillating, low-voltage electrical fields.
Miller notes, for example, that cells from green plants produce a distinctive signal when exposed to light.
"We see a response when the light is on, but not when the light is off," Miller said at a meeting last month of the American Geophysical Union in Baltimore, Maryland.
Specifically, Miller is detecting photosynthesis in action.
The device is only one example of promising technology being developed in the growing field of biogeophysics.
The science applies remote-sensing techniques—normally used for studying rocks, planetary atmospheres, or buried archaeological sites—to living organisms.
From Cancer to ET
In addition to photosynthesis, other signals the life-signs sensor could detect appear to relate to different cellular processes.
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