Friday, December 3, 2004

Giant pouched rats sniff out landmines


Landmine sniffing ratTom sez: "Who needs an electronic nose to sniff out buried landmines? The Belgians prefer African giant pouched rats. And no, the rats do not get blown to bits."

The idea of using rats for the detection of landmines came up through a search for a cheap and efficient mine detector tool, which would be able to detect both metal and plastic landmines.

"Added bonus: the rats can detect tuberculosis from sputum samples!!" Link



posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 11:11:51 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

Email this entry to:


Your email address:


Message (optional):