Flower-Power Could Help Clear Land mines

[BioHazard]

Tue Jan 27,12:32 PM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Elinor Schang

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - A Danish biotech company has developed a genetically modified flower that could help detect land mines and it hopes to have a prototype ready for use within a few years.

"We are really excited about this, even though it's early days. It has considerable potential," Simon Oestergaard, chief executive of developing company Aresa Biodetection, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

The genetically modified weed has been coded to change color when its roots come in contact with nitrogen-dioxide (NO2) evaporating from explosives buried in soil.

Within three to six weeks from being sowed over land mine infested areas the small plant, a Thale Cress, will turn a warning red whenever close to a land mine.

According to data compiled by Aresa, more than 100 million land mines have been spread out in 45 countries, hidden killers that often remain for years after a conflict is over.

Oestergaard said the problem of sowing the seeds in a potential land mine could be overcome by clearing strips through a field by conventional methods or by using crop planes.

Currently land mines are mostly removed by putting a stick into the ground to locate the mine, then removing it and detonating it. Dogs and metal detectors are also often used.

"We don't think our invention will completely replace other methods. The main target of this product is soil that will be used for different agricultural activities," Oestergaard said.

Although there are no official figures for the number of victims of land mines, peace activists say tens of thousands are injured, maimed or killed each year.

Aresa's invention, based on research at the Institute of Molecular Biology at Copenhagen University, uses a plant's normal reaction to turn red or brown when subjected to stressful conditions such as cold or drought, but has genetically coded it to react only to nitrogen-dioxide.

TESTS START THIS YEAR

Aresa has succeeded in growing the genetically modified plant and hopes to launch restricted tests this year and to apply for field tests in Denmark and abroad after that.

Oestergaard said a prototype could be on the market within a couple of years but he declined to give a more specific date.

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.

Aresa, a private company, is currently seeking strategic partners to speed up its development, both through financial and intellectual support, and has filed for intellectual property protection under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Oestergaard said Aresa's scientists were not the only ones trying to use genetically modified plants to detect land mines but its research was entirely independent from other projects.

It hopes to use the Thale Cress also for detecting and cleaning soil contaminated by heavy metals such as lead, copper, zinc and chromium, a major source of pollution in many industrialized countries.

Oestergaard said the modified weed was infertile and unable to spread its seeds, meaning the risk was minimal that the plant would spread into unwanted areas.

[deathblow]

Land mines are a scourge that needs to be outlawed, for any war or conflict. It is cool to see people developing means to safely detect these horrible devices. I just watched a special on land mines on the History Channel, and I was horrified at the impunity our government, and others, spread them with.

[BioHazard]

Originally posted by deathblow
Land mines are a scourge that needs to be outlawed, for any war or conflict. It is cool to see people developing means to safely detect these horrible devices. I just watched a special on land mines on the History Channel, and I was horrified at the impunity our government, and others, spread them with.

Agreed,I guess from the aggressors side, its a cheap way to kill a lot of the enemy. Let's hope this really works out.

[cbrsmurf]

Very cool! The problem I see with this is that if the flower is too 'strong,' it might wipe out other species of flora in the area and mess up the ecosystem. On the other hand, if it is too weak, it wont grow or survive, making it useless. Any more info on this project?

I think main reason the U.S. isn't part of that landmine treaty thiing is because of the North Korea/South Korea situation. Once the threat is gone in that region, I'm sure the U.S. would sign it. Landmines are really more of a defensive weapon.

I think I saw that same program as you Allan!

[YuJinha]

Anything beats being caught in a potential mine field without an Ordinance team to handle detection/defusal. They teach you at basic if you're somehow caught in a minefield, grab a Snickers b/c you're not going anywhere for a long time. You're taught that to probe for mines, you take a small stick and you just poke the ground in the direction you need to go in careful and methodic 1 inch intervals. In doing do, you are supposed to be able to feel for a possible mine with the stick without setting it off before you actually walk over it. However, since you can't seem them badboys, you have to be very very thorough with your probing.

[YuJinha]

Originally posted by cbrsmurf
I think main reason the U.S. isn't part of that landmine treaty thiing is because of the North Korea/South Korea situation. Once the threat is gone in that region, I'm sure the U.S. would sign it. Landmines are really more of a defensive weapon.

I'm pretty sure the U.S. doesn't use anti-personal mines anymore. That's what the M1A1 Claymore Mine (I know it has the word mine in it but it isn't burrowed underground) is for. However, they do use anti-tank mines which have big tilt rods (long pole) that stick out of the ground so that when tanks run over them, after being tilted I think it's like 15 degrees in any direction, well you know what happens next. However, although intended for tanks, I suppose some infantryman could just not see the pole and still walk over it which it would suck to be him. But for all intents and purposes, the Army and Marines don't use anti-personal devices which are fully concealed as it violates the Geneva Convention.

On a little side note, Combat Engineers aren't allowed to fill Claymores with glass. They can put rusty nails, spikes, rocks, ball bearings (what it normally comes with) and almost anything but glass. This is because the Geneva Conventions forbids this because X-Rays can't see glass. So the Doc will never fully be able to remove all of the shrapnel thus leaving a painful wound in the victim for the rest of their lives.

[deathblow]

Originally posted by YuJinha
On a little side note, Combat Engineers aren't allowed to fill Claymores with glass. They can put rusty nails, spikes, rocks, ball bearings (what it normally comes with) and almost anything but glass. This is because the Geneva Conventions forbids this because X-Rays can't see glass. So the Doc will never fully be able to remove all of the shrapnel thus leaving a painful wound in the victim for the rest of their lives.

Damn, that's a nasty little trick I never heard about.

[BioHazard]

Originally posted by cbrsmurf
Very cool! The problem I see with this is that if the flower is too 'strong,' it might wipe out other species of flora in the area and mess up the ecosystem. On the other hand, if it is too weak, it wont grow or survive, making it useless. Any more info on this project?


I think they took precautions to engineer the plant to be infertile. That way they could just seed an area from the air, let the plants grow, detect any possible mines and then they would die off. Its always dangerous to introduce a genetically modified species into the wild, you can never predict what the consequences will be.