By David Fellingham
BYU researchers have created a portable version of large, heavy lab equipment that the military, city governments, and civilian companies want to buy. Milton Lee of the Chemistry Department and a team of researchers from across campus have created a portable version of a mass spectrometer and gas chromatographer.
'We are developing a hand portable biological, chemical detection unit,' Lee said. 'An instrument you can carry around, analyze, sample and figure out what it is.'
A real world example Lee gave is a special forces unit behind enemy lines scouting out a local factory to see if it is manufacturing drugs, weapons or flour. Old mass spectrometers are mounted on trucks and not possible to take behind enemy lines. With the portable unit, a few soldiers could determine what is being made and either leave it alone or call in an air strike.
Lee and his team wanted to make the unit as simple as possible, so anyone could use it without much training. The unit has an internal library of known chemicals and biological agents. Once the machine has warmed up, the sample is introduced then analyzed; the screen then displays what it is and its danger level.
Larry Lee, Milton Lee''s brother, is an adjunct professor here and works on the project with Milton Lee. Larry Lee also hopes this machine will give its users the information they need to make better decisions.
'You need to identify if is not hazardous or suit up,' Larry Lee said.
Larry Lee said he hopes that this could help with a more rapid response to terrorist attacks, because the units allow people to figure out faster what things are.
Randy Waite, an adjunct professor involved with the research process, remembers when in March of 2005 an improperly loaded train full of acid started leaking in a rail yard in Salt Lake City. Authorities had a hard time defining what the substance was because they had no way of testing the acid on site. The samples had to be taken off-site and tested.
' gives the user access to data in the field,' Waite said.
In the future these men hope to make these units smaller and smaller. According to Daniel Austin of the Chemistry Department, the ultimate would be a Star Trek-type device. The device would be small enough to hold in the palm of a hand, or fitted on an armband that soldiers could wear that would sound an alarm when detecting harmful chemicals.
In the near future this team of BYU scientists hopes to have the new technology in the hands of soldiers and emergency personnel everywhere. A few units are being sent out for testing at government labs soon, and hopefully they will be able to mass-produce and sell the units within a few months.