Gardeners hate it. Geneticists love it. And Danish scientists - well, they’re engineering it to root out land mines. Thale cress, a model organism from the mustard family, grows like a weed almost everywhere on Earth. The modified plant’s bright green leaves turn deep red whenever its roots are exposed to nitrogen dioxide, a gas released into the soil by degrading mines. Simon Oestergaard, CEO of Aresa Biodetection in Denmark, plans to sow fields of NO2-sniffing Arabidopsis thaliana in areas riddled with ordinance from Angola to Cambodia. The effort’s life- and limb-saving potential is staggering: More than 100 million land mines kill or injure 26,000 people in 45 countries each year. Granted, any new technology would surely put a dent in that figure. Today’s most popular detection method is poking around with a stick.
- Jesse Freund
Anders Sondergaard/Aresa Biodetection]
START
Do I Hear $1,000 for the Univac?
When I Grow Up, I Wanna Spy on the Neighbors!
The Mathematics of Murphy’s Law
Weeding Out Land Mines
