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more about #biobricks ♠ Final ♠: Sounds real damn expensive. The countries that have to deal with land mines are usually Third World and their leaders would probably opt for another ... more » gorehound: those little bacties sure are cool and glow like a psychedelic trip more » goldfarb: I've always wondered why people don't just use one of these things to 'look' for land mines... just drive around making a huge amount of noise and di... more » tetracycloide: well they can't be harmless to everything because they must eat something. also, what help would the be on minefields to new for enough chemicals to ... more » crashedpc - Haifisch: That's fine and dandy until the bacteria animate said mines and thus creating the first sentient landmines. With a vengeance. more » -
#madscience
Synthetic Bacteria Can Reveal Landmines
Tailor-made microbes could save thousands of lives a year in poor nations, but not in the way you would think. A new breed of bioengineered bacteria can spot buried explosives. More » -
#madsciencecontest
Deadline Approaches! Build a Lifeform and We'll Send You to Hong Kong or Give You $1000
io9 wants to encourage mad scientists in every field, but especially in the area of synthetic biology. That's because synthetic biologists are the people who are going to build new life forms, like ligers and unicorns and people with claws and glowing eyes. OK, they might build bacteria that can clean up oil spills and repair damaged kidneys too. The point is, building new lifeforms is the science of the future and therefore you can never have too many garage laboratories and mad scientists devoted to it. That's why io9 is sponsoring a contest to find two of the best synthetic life forms you can design for us. You've had almost two months to build that lifeform, and now the contest deadline looms! You've got until Monday, Aug. 25, at midnight to hand in your contest entry. All the details are below. More »
