The modern world is full of security threats that are the
results of globalization, economies and differences among National cultures.
From individual level to international level everyone has a fear of being attacked
either by terrorists or by hackers. Every country is trying to improve its
security policies to give a secure environment to the citizens. That’s why we
see lots of soldiers in our borders, security guards outside the banks and
other important places.
Think different to secure your place:
It’s very common now days to use alarm system for the
protection of homes, offices and other places from various threats. But there
are professionals who are efficient enough to hack this alarm system to achieve
their targets. So what to do and how to keep ourselves secure? Relax you don’t
need to worry a lot as plant scientist are working for your safety. Yes plants
for your security. It sounds crazy but it is happened, plants have been
established that can detect some specific chemicals like explosives and other
pollutants and produce signals.
How plants can replace the security guards:
A senior biologist Dr. June Medford from Colorado State
University (CSU) is conducting research that will enable the plants to stop
producing chlorophyll when they detect pollutants or explosives in the air. Naturally
plants have genes that respond to stimuli and activate certain mechanisms in
plants. Like whenever plant is attacked by any virus, bacteria plant will
activate its defense mechanism and kill the tissues along with the virus. Similarly
in this case plant leaf respond to threatening stimuli by releasing chemicals,
thicken their cuticle and activates the color receptor proteins in plant DNA
that makes the plant to change their color from green to some other. Professor
Medford said that the detection abilities of these plants are similar to or better
than those of dogs. Along with these threats this innovation can also be used
to improve the environment if the plants will tell us the presence of
pollutants around us.
Professor Medford and her team are also interested in
causing the plants to change color into some invisible form to enable the
authorities to know about the activities of terrorists before they knew that
they have been detected by the plants.
