Fishing for toxins
Fish are not only brain food, but they're part of the nation's growing counter-terrorism forces. Several American cities have begun pilot projects to test their municpal water supplies with fish, by using technology developed by Intelligent Automation Corporation. The fish are contained in a tank and water from the town's supply is constantly streamed by the Bluegills, who apparently are extremely sensitive to the presence of many kinds of toxins in their environmental water. When they spot something, they thrash, which is picked up sensors and triggers an email alert to human beings to check out the situation. The fish's receptors are more refined than anything that we've been able to build so far.
This is a pretty neat idea and I wonder if this can be extended to other roles for animals. It reminds me of dolphin testing that the US Navy did during the Vietnam War, employing the porposies as "guard dogs" for navy ships.
Posted on September 19, 2006
