Spurred by the anthrax hysteria of 2001, the U.S. government has thrown billions of dollars into developing new equipment and technologies to detect chemical and biological warfare agents. Now the Air Force has a plan that, if it actually works, would render all those billions obsolete.
A new solicitation from the service describes the need for “nanoparticle-based sensors that can be deployed in biological environments for the real-time detection of agents of interest.” In other words, the Air Force wants an instant, in vivo detector for every single toxic chemical and nasty germ on the face of the earth — from smallpox to nerve agents.
