Program #2055
In 1995, an attack in Japan filled a Tokyo subway station with deadly Sarin gas. Well since then, scientists have been working to come up with a first response strategy – a way to quickly neutralize a contaminated area, and make it safe for clean up. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by DuPont.
Mark Tucker is an engineer with Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. For the past 2 years he’s been developing a new substance which could be used in the case of a biological or chemical attack such as the one in Japan. The result is a decontamination foam which can be deployed from a fire extinguisher, neutralizing the hazardous substances or organisms.
ambience: Decontamination foam being sprayed
“Our foam, it starts out as a liquid. And it expands from its original volume to about 100 times that original volume, so it fills big volumes of space with a small amount of liquid. And then over a period of a couple hours, the foam collapses, and goes back to the liquid state.
The foam has proved successful in neutralizing the effects of Sarin, as well as killing the anthrax bacteria. But anthrax is so deadly, that Sandia engineers had to first simulate the organism to test their new foam.
“Basically we’re looking at two petri dishes. One is with the anthrax simulant exposed to the foam, and the other one is with the anthrax simulant that has not been exposed to the foam. And where it has been exposed to the foam,on the petri dish there is no growth because the simulant has been completely killed.”
Those results have been confirmed with experiments on real anthrax in a high-security facility. Pulse of the Planet is presented by DuPont, bringing you the miracles of science, with additional support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.
Back to the Pulse of the Planet home page.