Lego Nerve Gas Detector

July 10, 2018

Made from Lego bricks and a smart phone, a device is connected to free software and utilizes the phone's camera to identify and detect nerve agents, like VX and sarin. (University of Texas at Austin) — Made from Lego bricks and a smart phone, a device is connected to free software and utilizes the phone’s camera to identify and detect nerve agents, like VX and sarin. (University of Texas at Austin)

BOB HIRSHON (host):

A Lego nerve gas detector. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

First responders charged with the serious task of detecting the presence of deadly nerve gas can now use a simple device made out of Legos. UT, Austin organic chemist Pedro Metola says conventional nerve gas detectors cost tens of thousands of dollars and are tethered to a laboratory. But in a warzone, time is of the essence. So his team designed a portable detector box using Legos that holds a smartphone. If a sample contains a nerve agent, it will react with chemicals inside the box, producing different colors and intensities of fluorescent light depending on the type and amount present.

PEDRO METOLA (UT, Austin):

Analysis is very very easy, it’s just a matter of taking a picture with your smartphone and processing the data from that picture.

HIRSHON:

Metola’s team writes in ACS Central Science that the Lego detector can be reconfigured to fit any phone. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Story by Susanne Bard

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