Landmines are arguably the gravest threat to both humans and wildlife alike in almost 87 countries across the planet and with war times long behind us the ugly scars and the undetonated landmines still haunt those who wish to put the past behind them. In countries such as Sri Lanka over 20 elephants each year are killed by landmines while men and women continue to die needlessly in the African nations. An estimated 1.6 million animals each year are consumed by these sleeping death traps. But now scientists have designed a new ally that will help us fight this demon- a genetically engineered bacteria that will glow around a landmine!

Produced using a new technique called BioBricking, which manipulates packages of DNA the newly created bacteria forms green patches when sprayed onto ground where mines are buried. Now forces can just air spray the bacteria from a flight and then give it a couple of hours before the bacteria starts to glow around the landmines.

While previous such attempts have been made scientists claim that this time the experiment will lead to a practical solution as it is cheap to mass produce this bacteria. For nations like Somalia, Bosnia, and Cambodia, which have been plagued by landmines these bacteria could be the best gift they received in a long, long time.

Treehugger