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DNA Detectors for Hazardous Metals
ddillman writes "EETimes.com has a story about new DNA-based sensor chips that can detect any of a range of hazardous metals such as lead and mercury in real time. Previously, this had required lengthy and expensive testing in batches for specific elements. When the sensors detect the metal for which they're testing, they emit light into a fiber optic line. They've already got a range of three orders of magnitude in sensitivity, and expect to be able to refine this considerably."
"Unless you're stupid enough to eat it, in which case you deserve what you get."
In that case, it is unfortunate that there's a lot of people out there stupid enough to eat it.
The problem is, as an element, lead is neither created or destroyed, and so must be left over after the gasoline is burned. In leaded gasoline, this means about 0.15 to 0.8 g/L (0.02 to 0.11 oz/gallon). Let's say I drive about 12,000 miles a year, and get an average of 30 mpg (I drive a compact). That works out to 0.5 to 2.7 pounds of lead a year, just for me. Multiply that by the tens of millions of cars on the road in the US, and you get a lot of lead that has to go somewhere.
In the short term, a little of this is retained in the engine (Leaded gasoline actually contains additives to prevent lead build-up), and some is retained in the motor oil. But most of this lead is exhausted into the atmosphere. From there, it can be directly inhaled, or settle into water supplies, agricultural land, etc, where part of it will be bound up by soil and plants, and part of it will gradually work it's way to the sea. In rural areas, this is not so much of a problem, where there's more space and fewer cars ("The Solution to Pollution is Dilution"). In urban areas, the lead is much more concentrated.
It's not so harmful to adults, who can adsorb quite a bit of lead without any serious effects, but dangerous to children, where it stunts mental development. And stupidity is the one thing in the world that we definitely do not need more of.
This URL describes how belgian scientists engineered a bacteria which emits light in the presence of certain metallic ions. From this bacteria they took the genes which did this. About the same as described in the article...only here a more intelligent way of finding the genes was used. The document was written in april 1997. That quite some time before professor Li Yu did this! I wish the professor good luck with his patent:) I fear he will get it since the patent office in the USA has already shown time after time that they do not know what they are talking about...
0x or or snor perron?!
"That capability has become a high priority at the National Institutes of Health, which provided the funding for Lu's experiments. The NIH has specifically targeted health applications for the technology, including environmental monitoring, clinical toxicology, wastewater treatment and industrial process monitoring."
I like it when governments are involved with this kind of thing. When safety is involved, and when health is an issue, it is good to have an agency in the loop. I'm glad that the NIH has targeted these applications. It is a reasonable application of tax money. What do you think?
John S. Rhodes
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I can see a use for this in homes and businesses (schools, organizations, etc.). People drink water every day, but occasionally, it's contaminated. Because checks aren't performed every day (for time/economic reasons), contaminations can slip by unnoticed for weeks or even months. This could provide a real-time testing (maybe once a day or something) for dangerous metals and set off a warning if there's a problem, kind of like carbon monoxide/smoke detectors. It would probably be more useful, though, if it detected for biological contaminants (due to the fact that biological contamination is far more common). Just a thought.