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.

Comments

Re:Why do they have to change color?

[lommer]

I realize this is a joke, but to stem the flood of responses by people who didn't RTFA, here's the scoop:

You take a plane, fill it with seed "bomblets" and disperse them over a minefield. The bomblets embed in the soil and the plants grow. Within a few months you have a field of plants, a few of which are a different colour. The ones that have changed colour are close to mines. This makes finding the mines easier, and it also makes it possible to find a safe route through the field by only looking at the colour of the plants.

Re:That is INSANE.

[c_oflynn]

If you were first post, that would mean you *should* have had lots of time that could have been spent reading the article.

Plants normally go red or redish in autumn where the red pigments dominate over the green ones, or as a result of stressed growth conditions. The genetically engineered plants are modified in a way that only allows these plants to go red if triggered by a specific stimulus present in the soil. The stimulus is unique to the plant dependent on the actual application that is pursued with the specific plant. Stimuli may be heavy metals, or NO2 that evaporates when explosives are reduced in the soil. Such stimuli trigger the production of a key-enzyme in the biochemical pathway responsible for production of the group of red pigments called anthocyanins. The resulting colour change is expected within 3-6 weeks dependent on the growth conditions.

Re:Yes, but...

[SkArcher]

and evidently you haven't actually read the article - the plants are infertile (don't themselves produce seeds) to prevent the genetically modified weed from spreading in areas where it isn't wanted.

It is sown from the air or from conventionally cleared strips of land.

It grows in roughly 3 - 6 weeks.

The USA still supports the use of landmines

[djmurdoch]

The article states

The use of land mines was outlawed in the 1997 Ottawa Convention and more than 90 countries committed themselves last year to cleaning up the debris of war to reduce the number of civilian casualties from munitions left by armed conflicts.

However, the USA was not a signatory to this treaty as of 2002, according to this web page. Apparently there were plans to sign in 2006, but the landmine-lovers were working to change those. Has anything changed?

There aren't many other countries that were both democratic and non-signatories: Finland, India, Israel, Korea, Russia, Turkey (but the democracy of some of those might be questionable). The entire "Axis of Evil" made the list, though.

Re:That is INSANE.

[Hentai]

For those who are curious, here is a picture of the little guy in bloom - presumably, the entire plant turns red (stem and all) in the presence of NO2, not just the flowers.

Good, good, good!!!

[ElGanzoLoco]

My family lives in Cambodia (both NGO workers), one of the most mined countries on earth.

Kids still die everyday because they step on landmines. There are anti tank mines, that will kill you, antipersonal mines, that will cripple you, and UXO (unexploded ordnance) that can do about anything.

You go to the market in certain places in Cambodia, and you see that almost 10% (no kidding) of the population is crippled, one or both legs missing, sometimes an arm... Shit.

Worse: Cambodia has huge monsoon rains, and the floods eventually transform into torrents. So the mines MOVE with time. So there you are, happily walking on a path that has been un-mined last year, and BOOM, the rain had brought a mine right there. Scary.

Even worse. Sometimes UXO (more rarely, mines) go right into the city, because of some construction site that uses sand dug from out of the city, and that has UXO's inside (rare, but it happened to one of our friends doing construction for his NGO).

Anything that can be used in demining should be. You might think that demining mostly occurs in rice fields and stuff but no, in some remote places over there, they have to clear villages *house by house*, garden by garden. There are still millions (litteraly) of landdmines scattered everywhere, and even though the foreign demining teams, and the Cambodians they have trained, do a great job, it never will be enough.

Still, Cambodia is one of the most beautiful countries on earth. Now, most touristic-and-not-so-touristic places are safe, so go there, but stay away from anywhere the locals tell you to NOT go.