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Spinoff story
Sensors Provide Early Warning of Biological Threats
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Early Warning Inc., of Troy, New York, licensed powerful biosensor technology from Ames Research Center. Incorporating carbon nanotubes tipped with single strands of nucleic acid from waterborne pathogens, the sensor can detect even minute amounts of targeted, disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Early Warning features the NASA biosensor in its water analyzer, which can alert organizations to potential biological hazards in water used for agriculture, food and beverages, showers, and at beaches and lakes-within hours instead of the days required by conventional laboratory methods.