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"I operate by a code that makes me responsible for what I do, makes me definitely, directly, genuinely responsible. I am precisely the kind of person I made myself out to be."
- Harlan Ellison
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| Boink Biosensor | ||
| A hand-held sensor that detects the presence of hazardous biological material. |
Two members of a UN team looking for biological WMDs in late 1990's Iraq need to make a quick determination.
| "I'm gonna do a hand-held Boink, real quick," Littleberry said. From the suitcase, he lifted out an electronic device about the size of a paperback book. It was a palm-sized biosensor. People called it a Boink because it let off a pleasant chiming sound if it detected a biological weapon. The Boink had a screen and some buttons and a sample port - a little hole. The Boink could test for the presence of twenty-five different known biological weapons.
Littleberry took the small tube that contained the truck sample from his pocket. He took out a disposable plastic pipette. It was a little droplet-sucker. He sucked up a droplet of the sample liquid and dropped it straight into the sample port of the Boink. |
| Technovelgy from The Cobra Event,
by Richard Preston. Published by Random House in 1997 Additional resources -
|
In the glossary at the end of the book, Preston refers to the Boink as "a partly real, partly fictional biosensor device that can almost instantly detect approximately twenty-five dangerous infective pathogens."
I think this idea is loosely based on the BioSeeq unit that was available around this same time.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Cobra Event
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and Technology by Richard Preston
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- Your Own Handheld Biosensor
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'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.'
'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
