A U.S. research team has identified a chemical that could be effective against anthrax.
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Detection instrument can sniff out airborne terrorist threats
Security and law enforcement officials may some day have a new ally - a universal detection system that can monitor the air for virtually all of the major threat agents that could be used by terrorists.
Team IDs weakness in anthrax bacteria
MIT and New York University researchers have identified a weakness in the defenses of the anthrax bacterium that could be exploited to produce new antibiotics.
System to pinpoint airline passengers who contaminate cabins
Researchers developing a system that uses mathematical models and sensors to locate passengers releasing hazardous materials or pathogens inside airline cabins have shown that the technique can track a substance to an area the size of a single seat.
Landfills, chemical weapon debris possibly a good match, computer model suggests
Putting building debris contaminated by chemical weapons into municipal landfills likely would pose only a minimal risk to nearby communities and the surrounding environment, according to a study scheduled for publication in the July 1 issue of the American Chemical Society journal
Environmental Science & Technology. The study's computer model, developed by environmental engineers at the Technical University of Denmark and North Carolina State University, could help policymakers and waste management officials determine what to do with these harmful materials if another terrorist attack occurs.
Quantum Dot Method Rapidly Identifies Bacteria
A rapid method for detecting and identifying very small numbers of diverse bacteria, from anthrax to
E. coli, has been developed by scientists from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Described in the March 28 issue of
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the work could lead to the development of handheld devices for accelerated identification of biological weapons and antibiotic-resistant or virulent strains of bacteria—situations where speed is essential.
LLNL researchers capture four awards for industrial innovation
Laboratory researchers have garnered four awards for developing advanced technologies with commercial potential. Three teams of LLNL scientists and an individual Livermore scientist who worked with a former Laboratory researcher have won plaques from the trade journal R&D Magazine for being among the top 100 industrial innovations worldwide for 2004. They worked with two industrial collaborators.
Many Deaths Still Expected With Earth-Penetrating Nuclear Weapons
A nuclear weapon that is exploded underground can destroy a deeply buried bunker efficiently and requires significantly less power to do so than a nuclear weapon detonated on the surface would, says a new report from the National Academies' National Research Council. However, such "earth-penetrating" nuclear weapons cannot go deep enough to avoid massive casualties at ground level, and they could still kill up to a million people or more if used in heavily populated areas, said the committee that wrote the report.
Harnessing microbes, one by one, to build a better nanoworld
Taking a new approach to the painstaking assembly of nanometer-sized machines, a team of scientists at UW-Madison has successfully used single bacterial cells to make tiny bio-electronic circuits.
The work is important because it has the potential to make building the atomic-scale machines of the nanotechnologist far easier. It also may be the basis for a new class of biological sensors capable of near-instantaneous detection of dangerous biological agents such as anthrax.