Diamond sensors comes to the aid of modern day soldier

Filed in archive Tags and Readers on January 31, 2009

A soldier engaged in war has to face threat not only from bullets or explosives but several other risks as the enemy of today has become smarter and resorts to several other means to immobilize its opponents.

Now very soon soldiers will have access to diamond sensors which are expected to protect the modern day soldier from biological attacks. These sensors are estimated to detect chemical and biological agents in water since other materials tend to fail to perform under water. The sensor would be the width of a human hair and have probe molecules attached. The agent would match with the particular probe molecule which would lead to the agent sticking to the diamond surface and change to the surface would be detected electrically.

Built on computer chip these sensors would be sensed remotely by RFID and the location of the toxin would be radio backed. Also the day is not far when sensors to detect biological agents and airborne chemical would see the light of the day.