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Self-Propelling Microparticles Spot Ricin In Minutes (acs.org)
ckwu writes: Tiny rocketlike particles that move around on their own in a hydrogen peroxide solution can detect trace amounts of the lethal toxin ricin within minutes. The tube-shaped, microsized particles--made of graphene oxide lined with platinum--carry sensor molecules that glow when they bind to ricin. In a dilute hydrogen peroxide solution, the platinum catalyzes the breakdown of the peroxide into water and oxygen. The oxygen bubbles shoot out one end of the tube, propelling them in the liquid like little rockets. The swimming motors could actively seek out ricin in a sample and speed up detection, paving the way towards a quick, easy way to detect the bioterrorism agent in food and water samples (without having to bring them back to a lab).
I'll get you next time
A better headline might be: Micromissiles deliver payload, light ricin up.
This is a pretty cool concept, but I'm having some trouble convincing myself that nanoscopic swimming platinum/graphene tubes are really THAT much more effective than just, um, agitating the sample with the fluorescent agent?
Can it detect ricin in a packet of Stevia?
Minute Ricen
As if the BigMac and the supersize soda hadn't been lethal enough already.
Quite frankly, if statistics are any indicator, we should be deathly afraid of fast food rather than terrorism.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Especially if the ricin was in chocolate or a burger or something tasty like that.
I'm not waiting MINUTES for the test to finish. I want food now!
Ricin is one of those perennials, scare the folks in Topeka, get the nuts to kill themselves chasing 'easy solution'.
The traditional way for the cops to find out about a ricin cook is when he/she starts to smell. 'Anarchists Cookbook' instructions being particularly fatal.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
If you keep you minutes in digital format and the members read them online, there'd be no way that anybody could get any biological orr chemical agents spread that way.
and now the post-mortem can be done in minutes.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Sure, sure. Right up until Dr. X's mircoparticle cloud destroys them.
Exactly....like he said....why?
This is exactly the response I would expect.... ridiculous fear. This is a movie plot risk. It is a risk so rare and so ridiculous that the detector has no value at all.
Maybe something useful will come out of the research, but the stated goal is clear: To use bullshit excuses to get money to fund the lab.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
He isn't saying that. However....those other applications are 100% of the actual benefit to anyone.
The ONLY reason they are using ricin, is because they want some of that Fatherland Security gravy train. Nothing brings in the dollars like unfounded stupid fear. Its a recession proof industry.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"