Device Sniffs Out Signs of Life After Disasters 48
MTorrice writes "With every breath, people exhale a plume of chemicals. Now German researchers have developed a method to quickly and easily detect this chemical signature of life with a portable device. The team hopes that the approach can help firefighters and other first responders find people trapped inside rubble after earthquakes, terrorist attacks, or other calamities."
Dogs (Score:5, Insightful)
I've always thought dogs did a really great job of that.
Also good for sniffing out jews hiding in the wall (Score:3, Insightful)
..and for locating insurgents hiding in warzones, or stowaways...
not all the uses of this technology are good
Re:Also good for sniffing out jews hiding in the w (Score:4, Insightful)
Depends whose side you are on. One mans terrorist is another's freedom fighter. During WW2, the French resistance were the insurgents. Had the Nazis somehow won, history would have recalled them as terrorists.
Funding. (Score:5, Insightful)
Cynically, I think that adding 'terrorist attack' to the list might just be to greatly aid the chances of getting some sweet, sweet government money. Earthquakes and simular natural disasters achieve an annual victim count that outnumbers terrorist attacks by a few orders of magnitude, but governments seem so much more eager to publicly spend money on counter-terrorism.