NASA’s Chemical Sniffing Iphone app

What’s with all the good inventions lately? Either now is just a really productive time for good ideas or they are always happening and I don’t pay attention (most likely).

In any case this is another cool one and could be groundbreaking. NASA put together this prototype chemical sensor that can detect small amounts of chemicals like methane, ammonia, and chlorine gas. It uses a silicon chip that has 16 nanosensors and can transmit any data on detected chemicals through the iphone’s networking capabilities.

This innovation was developed in part by Jing Li, a NASA physical scientist, as part of the US Dept of Homeland Security’s Cell-All program. She has developed “nose” technology in several arenas, but this one might be the most wide-ranging.

via Inhabitat

Bomb Proof Wallpaper

Who says the military is all bad? Berry Plastics worked together with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to develop this mesh wallpaper which can withstand bombs, wrecking balls and presumably much more.

Good news for military bases, but is probably too expensive in your standard war-torn country, though….

via Inhabitat