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Genetically Modified Flower Detects Landmines
cdneng2 writes "Yahoo has the story that a Danish
company has developed a plant that can detect landmines. The genetically modified weed that has been coded to change color when its roots come in contact with nitrogen-dioxide (NO2) evaporating from explosives buried in soil." The company website has a bit more information.
When the kids of 3 world countries run out into the fields to pick the flowers??
Who's going to volunteer to plant them? BOOOM!!! Still, this is a pretty neat idea. Might not be so good for people who are color-blind, like my dad. :)
-1, "1337" speak
Shouldn't the gardeners blowing up while planting flowers be enough?
Someone's going to be pushing up the daisies!
I can just see a field of flowers all one colour.
Then there is one flower that is a different colour, and you think its so unique. You go over to take a look at it...
:-)
Alcohol and Calculus don't mix. Don't drink and derive.
OK, seriously, this is great. Too many kids are missing body parts from old munitions.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Flower power!
Develop the next generation flower that detonates itself, taking out the mine, instead of just turning a different color. You'd probably risk being gunned down by airport security for carrying flowers, but progress comes at a price ...
Now, crossbreed them with those heatbeam-shooting Ringworld sunflowers, and you've got something that detects mines, and then blows them up.
Now, how do you get rid of the fields of killer sunflowers covering the landscape? Errmm. sorry, didn't hear that. Gotta go...
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
All you have to do is look at the numbers in the adjacent boxes.
People are so lazy!
Well, this might be one use of GM where the environmentalists can't complain much with all the children maimed and killed by these things each year...
Hrmph. Don't you believe it. There are people out there who would, in the words of my father, "bitch if you hung 'em with a new rope."
Windows is the Acme of computing -- in the Wile E. Coyote sense.
Sorry, I thought this was about flowers detecting mimes. I was so looking forward to using this during my next trip to New York City. My mistake.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
...I've just been using my binoculars.
"Landmine spotted, check your command map."
I didn't even notice a "gardner" class in the limbo screen...
-JDF
Don't plants already turn red around landmines? When somebody finds one, anyway.
It's probably safer to take a chance on land mines than to be swallowed up by Kudzu while you're asleep. ... Look out on the sides of the roads in parts of Alabama and Georgia and you'll see the humps/bumps where cows and cars have paused too long and succumbed to the onslaught of fast growing Kudzu. ..... On the other hand, if you could genetically engineer Kudzu to die unless it encountered a land mine, it could turn red and within a few hours, assuming normal growth rate, protect the mine from intrusion by kids, adults and animals. Within a few days, it might even protect against tractors and tanks getting to the mine. Within a few weeks, the local population would be devoured and there would be no one left to get to the mines anyway, so there would be no need for exploding the mines. Very cost effective.
These plants could be a really inexpensive way of exposing landmines. I really hope this project works out.
Sorry, I've already patented the idea of leaving really useful things unpatented.
Oh, now reassuring. That means they're going to reproduce, escape to the mainland, and make several bad sequels, right? :)
-1, "1337" speak
Will these flowers be genetically engineered to have numbers on them, indicating how many mines are growing in the plots next to them?
Sounds like a swell idea, so long as I don't have be the guy that walks throught the field and plants the seeds...
They're going to be called "MyDoom" blooms.
Watch for them in an e-mail real soon.
Captain: Company, halt!! This empty stretch of land looks a bit suspicious. Soldier: Want me to call in the plants, Sir? Captain: Aye, soldier. Alright, men, let's rig up some form of irrigation so we can water these babies. Soldiers: Yes, sir! Captain: Johnson, you still have that deck of playing cards? We are going to be here a while... -- 3 to 6 weeks later -- Soldier: Sir, it looks clear. No red flowers. Captain: Oh well, guess I was wrong. Foward, march!
As long as your spreading seed by airplane, just use bird seed... let the birds find the mines!
I think some of those weed genes were around when I was a kid in my parents yard.
:)
But the ones at my parents house only detected dog poop and septic tanks. And they changed the grass from its natural beige color to strange dark-green hue.
Small print: you need to plow the minefield first.
Will they grow in desserts?
They'll grow in cake and fresh pie, but they won't grow so well in cold climates such as ice cream.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?