Technology/Science
Glowing Bacteria May One Day Protect Peo
LAND MINES LEFT OVER from bygone conflicts — or those still being fought — pose silent threats to millions of people around the world. With the help of bacteria that glow in their presence, these hidden hazards may one day be found and safely removed or destroyed. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have spent a decade developing living land mine sensors using E. coli bacteria. In recent studies, they describe their latest progress. By using genetic engineering, they can turn each bacterium into “a miniature firefly” in the presence of a chemical associated with the explosives, said Shimshon Belkin, the Hebrew University microbiologist leading the research. In 2019, more than 5,500 people were killed or injured by land mines and explosive remnants of war, and 80% of them were civilians, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Anti-personnel land mines, which can be only a few inches across and easily concealed, are especially
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July-August 2021
d a n g e r o u s . Estimates vary for the worldwide count of buried land mines, but they are as high as 110 million. Many strategies have been tried to locate such t land l d mines, i h as using i metal detectors and training detection animals, including an award-winning rat that helped locate 71 land mines before it retired. Each method balances benefits with risks and costs. The idea of rewiring bacteria to sense land mines originated with Robert Burlage, then at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. In the mid1990s, Dr. Burlage worked on getting bacteria to light up in response to organic waste and mercury. Looking for a new application for this technique, he got the idea to try targeting land mine chemicals. Although Dr. Burlage conducted a few small field
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