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Article: Artificial noses have the scent of promise ; Could help detect cancer and toxins
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- September 23, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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For two decades, scientists have strived to build an artificial
nose that can mimic what is sometimes called our most elusive sense.
Now, with a growing slate of potential applications - detecting
cancer in a breath, say, or identifying airborne toxins on the
battlefield - the technology is advancing and efforts are
proliferating.
In North Grafton, a small startup company, CogniScent, is
working on an electronic nose that resembles a yellow Dustbuster and
sniffs out everything from molds to dangerous chemicals. At MIT,
researchers are working on "RealNose," a Pentagon-funded project
inspired by dog noses that aims to use actual biological parts -
the smell receptors that recognize odor ...