Bye-bye sniffer dogs! Now, trained mice to sniff out terrorists at airports!
By ANIThursday, February 3, 2011
LONDON - Israeli researchers have developed a new detector where trained teams of mice will sniff would-be bombers and drugs at airports.
Researchers say it is more accurate than using dogs, pat downs and x-ray machines, reports the Daily Mail.
It looks like a metal detector or full-body scanner, but one side of it houses three concealed cartridges, each containing eight specially trained mice.
The animals work four-hour shifts, milling around in an allocated cartridge while sniffing air pumped in from outside.
When they pick up traces of explosives or drugs, they flee to a side chamber, triggering an alarm, according to New Scientist.
To avoid false positives, more than one mouse must run away.
“It is as if they are smelling a cat and escaping. We detect the escape,” inventor, Eran Lumbroso, of BioExplorers Company said.
The device was field tested last year on 1,000 shoppers in a Tel Aviv mall when the mice successfully picked out the 22 people with mock explosives in their pockets. (ANI)
