Plants that smell bombs? Insanely Cool Scientist June Medford

      June Medford, a biologist at Colorado State University is creating plants that change color when they are exposed to environmental contaminants or explosives.  Think this is science fiction?  It's not.  It's  happening right now in a little lab in Fort Collins, Colorado. These new allies are being called  "Plant Sentinals."

Imagine, a plant that turns from green to white as it grows on top of buried landmines, or when exposed to toxic chemicals?  Think of the implications in countries where land mines cost thousands of lives and limbs each year, the poor troops being hit by IED's on the roadside, or perhaps even carbon monoxide or radon poisoning in our homes.



Dr. Medford is a busy lady.  According to the article I read she has thirty or more post-doctoral researchers, assistant professors, and students in her labs on campus at any given time.  They are busy "re-wiring the natural signaling process" native to plants so that they will turn white when exposed to toxins in the air or in the soil.  They used computers to redesign the naturally occuring receptors in the plants to detect common toxic chemicals, explosives, and other agents used by terrorists.

The federal government hasn't passed by unaware.  The Defense Threat Reduction Agency gave her a $7.9 million grant to continue moving forward and take these plants from the lab into the real world for testing.  So, if you see a white plant somewhere, run...