{"id":50,"date":"2012-11-22T09:02:27","date_gmt":"2012-11-22T17:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/?p=50"},"modified":"2012-12-24T14:03:29","modified_gmt":"2012-12-24T22:03:29","slug":"dog-inspired-scent-detector-sniffs-out-explosives-and-narcotics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/?p=50","title":{"rendered":"Dog-inspired scent detector sniffs out explosives and narcotics"},"content":{"rendered":"<address>From http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/electronic-nose\/25128\/<\/address>\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/author\/dario-borghino\/\" rel=\"author\">Dario Borghino<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>November 21, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Combining\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/tag\/nanotechnology\/\" target=\"_blank\">nanotechnology<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/tag\/microfluidic\/\" target=\"_blank\">microfluidics<\/a>, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have created a high-performance detector that draws inspiration from the anatomy of a dog&#8217;s nose to accurately identify substances \u2013 including explosives and narcotics \u2013 from very small concentrations of airborne molecules.<\/p>\n<p>Able to detect smells ten thousand times as faint as humans can, a dog&#8217;s nose is an invaluable asset to police forces around the globe. So, when UCSB researchers set out to build an effective\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/electronic-nose-sniffs-danger\/23822\/\" target=\"_blank\">electronic nose<\/a> that could assist homeland security, they already knew where they could find the perfect design.<\/p>\n<p>By modeling the way in which a dog&#8217;s nose efficiently absorbs and then concentrates airborne molecules, the researchers were able to produce a device with remarkable performance, capable of capturing and identifying molecules in concentrations as low as one part per billion \u2013 as well, or better, than their furry counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>Within the paperclip-sized chip, a network of microscale channels twenty times thinner than a human hair picks up the molecules and increases their concentration by a factor of up to a million. The molecules then interact with nanoparticles that amplify their spectral signature, and a miniature spectrometer detects their composition. The results from this analysis are then compared to a comprehensive database to find the closest match, identifying the molecule with a high degree of accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>Even though it was first intended for use in explosives detection (the design will soon be commercialized for homeland security applications) this technology has much more far-reaching applications. Because it can be used to identify a very wide variety of molecules, the researchers say it could be easily adapted to detect narcotic substances, food that has spoiled, or even as a diagnostic tool that can identify disease, including\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/cancer-detecting-electronic-nose\/17340\/\" target=\"_blank\">certain forms of cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A paper detailing the results was published this month in the journal\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1021\/ac302497y\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Analytical Chemistry<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/electronic-nose\/25128\/ By\u00a0Dario Borghino November 21, 2012 &nbsp; Combining\u00a0nanotechnology and\u00a0microfluidics, researchers at UC Santa Barbara have created a high-performance detector that draws inspiration from the anatomy of a dog&#8217;s nose to accurately identify substances \u2013 including explosives and narcotics \u2013 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/?p=50\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bizarre","category-perfumery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/panjora.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}