Author: Tyler Berrigan / Source: Science News for Students
After a disaster, search-and-rescue dogs use their amazing sense of smell to search for trapped people. But could an e-nose do their job for them? This pooch is looking over its shoulder.
Dogs are some of our best friends. That’s especially true after a disaster, such as an earthquake.
When buildings collapse, search-and-rescue dogs help find people trapped beneath the rubble. Dogs’ amazing noses can pick up the scent of survivors. Now scientists have developed an electronic tool that does the same thing. It’s taking scent detection to a whole new level — or, should we say, to extremely low levels.
The new device is a sort of electronic nose. Much like the canine version, this e-nose can detect chemical signs of life. Such scents include those due to acetone (AA-sih-tohn), ammonia (Uh-MOHN-yuh), isoprene (EYE-soh-preen), water vapor and carbon dioxide. People exhale tiny amounts of these or release them from their skin.
Researchers in Europe developed a device that can detect extremely low levels of these compounds. The tool includes three sensors the group designed, and two more that they bought. When certain chemicals touch materials on the sensors, a reaction occurs. This reaction produces an electrical signal. When occurring together, even tiny amounts of these compounds could point to some survivor below the rubble.
The research team described its findings March 30 in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
The e-nose knows
This isn’t the first time engineers have developed such a device. Earlier models, however, have been…
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