This is fucking brilliant

[Ravenstorm]

Click here. (http://www.core77.com/materials_processes/)

It's got a picture. But since the link will eventually disappear, I'll quote it too.


Genetically Engineered Plants Detect Land Mines

File this under "Friggin' Brilliant"...

A Danish company, Aresa Biodetection, has developed genetically-modified flowers that change color when their roots come in contact with nitrogen dioxide in the soil. Explosives used in mines produce NO2 as the chemicals gradually decay. The company plans to sow fields of NO2-sniffing Arabidopsis thaliana (Thale or mouse cress) in areas riddled with long-forgotten ordinance from Angola to Cambodia.

The effort's life- and limb-saving potential is staggering: More than 100 million land mines kill or injure 26,000 people in 45 countries each year. Today's most popular detection method is poking around with a stick.

Raven

Thats awsome, but its going to put those crazy guys with the probes out of work.

[Satira]

That's one of the coolest things I've heard in a while.

[Sean of the Thread]

My question is can you get a buzz from smoking or eating the ones that grew over the landmine?

[Ravenstorm]

Originally posted by Satira
That's one of the coolest things I've heard in a while.

I'm impressed not just by the technological achievement but that they'd research and develop it in the first place. The majority of the countries with all those unexploded mines are not rich so this will not be a money maker. It's truly a humanitarian effort.


Originally posted by Xyelin
My question is can you get a buzz from smoking or eating the ones that grew over the landmine?

You're thinking of nitrous oxide (N2O); that's nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

Raven

[Snapp]

That's completely amazing.

[Caiylania]

That rocks. You should save the picture/post it too before the article is replaced or moved.

Sometimes, my faith in people is restored.

[Ravenstorm]

Sure, why not.

Raven

Nitrous oxide is NO- and gives you a boner as it is a vasodilator.

[Ravenstorm]

Originally posted by Stanley Burrell
Nitrous oxide is NO- and gives you a boner as it is a vasodilator.

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0835748.html

Nitrous oxide - N2O
Nitric Oxide - NO

Raven

[Souzy]

Oh wow...that is truely amazing. I'm so going to show this to one of my best-friends, who's deaf in one ear cos of a bomb that went off next to him while his mom was escaping Cambodia. Yeah...that.

Originally posted by Ravenstorm

Originally posted by Stanley Burrell
Nitrous oxide is NO- and gives you a boner as it is a vasodilator.

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0835748.html

Nitrous oxide - N2O
Nitric Oxide - NO

Raven

Could it be, was I pwned by the Ravenstorm?

edited to add: IC OUS IC OUS, chem 101, blargh!

[Edited on 11-30-2004 by Stanley Burrell]

[Caiylania]

Raven has a secret stash of PWNZJOO posts ready to use!!!!!!!!!! No one is ever safe.

[Tsa`ah]

Kind of on par with observing nitrate levels in crop rotation.

One of the biggest reasons for rotating between corn and soy is to control nitrates. Soy requires a good nitrate concentration, while nitrates have an adverse effect on corn crops.

While the conventional method of calculating nitrates is to grid off and record plot by plot, the best way for us was to just ride the fields weekly and note pigmentation consistency.

Pale patches of corn - high nitrates, pale patches of soy - low nitrates. Saved us plenty by not always following rotation and rearranging plot placement.

Glad to see nitrate detection for humanitarian efforts.