PANTHER: PAthogen Notification for THreatening Environmental Releases
Summary: Engineers have invented PANTHER, which is a biosensor that detects airborne pathogens like smallpox, tularemia, E. coli, and anthrax. It gets more exciting- PANTHER can detect and identify bacteria and viruses in less than three minutes! Old sensors took a minimum of twenty minutes just to detect pathogens. This allows people to take action much quicker, because everyone could be infected during those twenty minutes. It can be used in buildings, subways, and other public places. It's about a cubic foot and weighs 37 pounds. With adjustments, it could improve biological detection capabilities for emergency responders. It's also possible that the technology could be applied in medical diagnostics. People wouldn't have to wait for test results until the lab was done analyzing their sample. However, scientists really want to use it to prevent bioterrorism.
Critique: Bioterrorism is pretty scary. It's hard to fight something you can't see! This technology makes me feel more protected.
Impact: This will save lives if pathogens are ever employed by bioterrorists.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080304120746.htm
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