davieG Posted 7 May 2007 Posted 7 May 2007 'Fake snot' helps artificial nose An artificial nose cannot detect as many smells as a real one Electronic noses used in the food industry and also for sniffing out explosives work better with artificial "snot", scientists have found. Researchers at the Universities of Leicester and Warwick coated the "noses" with a mixture of chemicals, mimicking mucus in a real nose. For the first time receptors were able to pick out milk and banana scents which had previously proven difficult. In a real nose mucus dissolves scents and separates odour molecules. The human brain can then use this information to tell smells apart. "Our artificial mucus not only offers improved odour discrimination for electronic noses, it also offers much shorter analysis times than conventional techniques," said Professor Julian Gardner from the University of Warwick. A natural nose has more than 100m specialised odour receptors which work to identify molecules in the air but electronic noses often have less than 50. The scientists tried to use the artificial mucus to improve the range of senses and found it significantly improved the performance of the electronic nose.
lookwhaticando Posted 7 May 2007 Posted 7 May 2007 I thought this was going to be a case of the old 'fake sneeze' prank going wrong.
JoeyB Posted 7 May 2007 Posted 7 May 2007 Got my hopes up! And for what? NOTHING!!! I'll go back to FM 07 now
davieG Posted 7 May 2007 Author Posted 7 May 2007 Got my hopes up!And for what? NOTHING!!! I'll go back to FM 07 now Well the warning was there, you chose to ignore it, me having had a past career in new product design found it interesting.
Alexikokopops Posted 7 May 2007 Posted 7 May 2007 It's no wonder Warwick are regarded as one of the finest research Universities when they're boshing out gems like this.
davieG Posted 7 May 2007 Author Posted 7 May 2007 It's no wonder Warwick are regarded as one of the finest research Universities when they're boshing out gems like this. There renown is certainly not to be sniffed at.
Daggers Posted 7 May 2007 Posted 7 May 2007 Some people! They've always gotta find something to pick at... *dials taxi*
davieG Posted 7 May 2007 Author Posted 7 May 2007 Some people! They've always gotta find something to pick at... *dials taxi* Aye there's some snotty buggers walking around with their noses in the air as if they've just smelt something bad.
Zingari Posted 8 May 2007 Posted 8 May 2007 Aye there's some snotty buggers walking around with their noses in the air as if they've just smelt something bad. are they made at some ol'factory ?
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