Would You Invest in a Bio-electronic Nose?

The sense of smell is actually one of the least appreciated smells in urban living today. This was not always the case. The nose was actually instrumental in predicting what fruit were ripe and ready to eat in the food gathering days of human history. Even today the pungent smell of overripe food hitting your nose, can let you know not to eat the said item.

Unfortunately the sensitivity of smell in the human nose is gradually reducing. With the number of smells that the nose is hit by in an urban setting, it is necessary for this to happen. Think about how your ears avoid listening to so many sounds in a city setting. It all becomes white noise in the background after a while.

The American Chemical Society have begun working on a science project to develop a Nano bio-electronic nose which can sniff out the key component of a decaying substance. Not only will this nose be able to help detect food that is about to go bad, it will also come in very handy to find signs of decay at sites of natural disasters. This should help in search and rescue operations where cadavers get buried under many layers.