Technology can protect water supply

January 7, 2005

A technology to instantly determine a poisoned water supply system has been developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Researcher Eli Greenbaum said the AquaSentinel system can detect toxins in a municipal water supply by analyzing the condition of the algae it contains.

"Depending upon whether the water is healthy or it has been exposed to poison, the fluorescence signature changes," said Greenbaum of ORNL's Chemical Sciences Division. "It is that change in signature that we use as the detection method for detecting the presence of chemical warfare agents."

Greenbaum noted AquaSentinel can monitor a water supply 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"The way AquaSentinel works is that based on the fluorescence from the algae that are already in the water, and the fact that the algae already live in the neighborhood of the environment that we are trying to protect, we never run out of biosensors," Greenbaum said.

Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory


Rank 5 /5 (1 vote)
Tags

Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Employers feel no love for unscrupulous practice of 'service sweethearting'

A new study led by two Florida State University marketing professors finds that some frontline service employees who are rewarded for hikes in customer loyalty and satisfaction also may engage in "service ...

Other Sciences / Economics & Business

created 18 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 7

Sonic Cradle lands spot in TED exhibition

A Simon Fraser University graduate student project that melds music, meditation and modern technology has landed a rare spot as an exhibit at TEDActive 2012 in Palm Springs, California this month.

Other Sciences / Other

created 20 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A frank discussion of the power law and linking correlation to causation

(PhysOrg.com) -- Michael Stumpf a mathematics professor at Imperial College in London, and Mason Porter a lecturer at Oxford have teamed together to write and publish a perspective piece in Science regarding the in ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 8 | with audio podcast report

US workers are 'giving away the store,' costing firms billions

Nearly 70 percent of the nation's service employees give away free goods and services – from hamburgers to cable TV – costing companies billions of dollars a year, according to a groundbreaking study.

Other Sciences / Economics & Business

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (3) | comments 10

New insights into how to correct false knowledge

The abundance of false information available on the Internet, in movies and on TV has created a big challenge for educators.

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Feb 07, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 9 | with audio podcast


Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)

The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.

New power source discovered

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and RMIT University have made a breakthrough in energy storage and power generation.

The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males

A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...

Fool's gold may prove an unlikely alternative to overexploited catalytic materials

Catalytic materials, which lower the energy barriers for chemical reactions, are used in everything from the commercial production of chemicals to catalytic converters in car engines. However, with current catalytic materials ...

Could Venus be shifting gear?

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft has discovered that our cloud-covered neighbour spins a little slower than previously measured. Peering through the dense atmosphere in the infrared, the ...

Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets

Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.