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Tiny Portable Biosensor Detects Contaminants In Food

A tiny portable biosensor detects even trace amounts of atrazine - a widely used agricultural herbicide. It also detects antibiotics in food. The device was created by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona scientists to provide an easy means of testing outside the laboratory.


(Portable biosensor from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

These portable biosensors can be manufactured on a mass scale, bringing the price down so that anyone could afford them. If desired, they could be sold as a personal, portable one-time poison sensor.

In his epochal 1965 science fiction novel Dune, author Frank Herbert writes about a feudal society that has some advanced technology. Fearful of poisons in their food and drink, wealthy people and nobility alike use remote-cast snoopers - tiny, poison-sensing devices:

He looked around at the clusterings of guests, the jeweled hands clutching drinks (and the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers).
(Read more about remote-cast snoopers)

Take a look at A new portable biosensor detects traces of contaminants in food more quickly and cheaply (press release); via Vegetarian Organic Life Blog via TheRawFeed.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/19/2007)

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