Future of Engineering

When U.S. Army special forces infiltrate a factory, they need to know quickly whether they've found chemical weapons so they can call in an airstrike. Similar speedy information is important to soldiers who believe they have been exposed to a chemical attack or to police and firefighters who respond to a terrorist attack or a spill that could include hazardous materials

Now, Brigham Young University scientist Milt Lee and the American Fork company he co-founded has created a miniaturized, lightweight device that recalls the fictional Tricorder of the TV and movie franchise "Star Trek." The Guardion-7 chemical detector is a 28-pound portable device that can detect, without false positives and with exact specificity, a wide range of chemicals in fewer than five minutes, even in harsh environments like the Iraqi desert.

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Keywords: Brigham Young University(BYU), Milt Lee, American Fork company, infiltrate, airstrike, firefighters, hazardous materials, Star Trek, Mike Alder, Torion Technologies, Guardion-7 chemical detector, 28-pound portable device, Wintergreen-flavored Lifesaver, miniaturized gas chromatograph, miniaturized mass spectrometer

Labels: Chemical-Engineering, Safety