It is unnecessary to resort to technology, or chemical analysis, when Nature is more precise and cheaper. MollusSCAN already markets a system that uses live mollusks to detect water pollution.
These cyborg mollusks They are cheaper and 10 to 100 times more accurate than any sensor or chemical analysis available to measure water contamination.
Since 2006, molluSCAN-eye install your equipment mollusks connected from Spitzbergen (1,300 km from the North Pole) to the Tropics. Nearly 90 “valvometers” have already been placed, both in very cold and very warm waters. Most are in the sea, but also in fresh water.
Mollusks, the best pollution detectors
It has long been known that the bivalve molluskslike oysters, musselsscallops and clams, filter the water to capture the plankton on which they feed.
These animals are very sensitive to water pollution. If they detect foreign chemical components, their shell gradually closes. If the water is contaminated, they are closed completely. This sensitivity to pollution is between 10 and 100 times greater than existing sensors.
French scientists from the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) of France and the University of Bordeaux have devised a system that allows turn a bivalve mollusk into a living water pollution sensor.
These mollusks (their species depends on the place where they settle) They have an electromagnet stuck in each of their shellsso that, when the shell is closed, the two electromagnets come together. It is a system that does not bother or harm the animal.
Depending on how open the shell is, the electromagnets will attract each other more or less, generating an electromagnetic field that can be measured.
This way it is possible to know exactly how open the shell is. If it is closed or almost closed, there is water pollution, with much greater precision than any sensor. To avoid false positives, several mollusks are used in the same place.
The data is recorded in real time, and can be sent to the client’s or user’s mobile phone, via the Internet, both for consultation and when there is a contamination alarm.
These “valvemeters“, as they have been called, are not only much more precise, but also cheaper, since Mollusks live their life and do not need maintenance.
The MolluSCAN-Eye system is already installed on the bottom of sensitive seas, in sewers, water channels, municipal water tanks, and many other locations. It is also available in Spain, through your website.
Using cutting-edge technology is all well and good, but sometimes Nature itself can do the job, cheaper and more precisely. These mollusks cyborgs that detect water pollutionare a good example.
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