Specialists 'sniffing' mines

After a decade of developing ' sniffing ' technology to help clear up landmines, American professor Timothy Swager, 45, head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's chemistry, was recently honored with the Lemelson-MIT award $ 500,000 price.

Timothy Swager and mine detection equipment. (Photo: Lemelson-MIT)

According to Merton Flemings, Director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, the uniqueness, practicality, and timeliness of the invention made Swager a brilliant candidate. Currently, US soldiers in Iraq use Swager's handheld device to find traces of bombs or explosives hidden in people or vehicles.

Stemming from the idea of ​​creating a mine search device to help self-defense soldiers on the battlefield, Swager and his colleagues invented a synthetic material capable of ' attracting ' chemicals like TNT in explosives. This invention can detect explosive traces with extremely low chemical concentrations. In 2001, Swager transferred technology to Nomadics, a subsidiary of ICx Technologies, to apply it to Fido explosive detectors. Swager said Fido can ' sniff ' skilled bombs like professional dogs.

In 2005, Fido won the US Department of Defense's greatest invention award. According to General Paul J. Kern, former senior military adviser to the US military, thanks to Swager's invention, hundreds of people have avoided the risk of landmine / UXO damage. This technology can be equipped in explosive detection robot models in dangerous and hard-to-reach areas. In addition to detecting explosives, Swager's technology also has many other applications such as detecting environmental pollutants or early stage cancer cells.

THAI AN (According to AP)

Founded in 1994, Lemelson-MIT is one of America's most prestigious scientific awards to honor inventions that contribute to changing the world.This year, the Lemelson-MIT Program also awarded a $ 100,000 prize to Lee Lynd, a professor of mechanical engineering at Dartmouth University, for his work on turning materials like grass, wood, wheat and straw into ethanol fuel.This invention is assessed to have the potential to improve global quality of life and protect the environment.