Edinburgh has a rich tradition of invention and discovery -
after all, the telephone, logarithms, colour photography, wave
energy, the hypodermic needle, the Encyclopædia
Britannica, Dolly the Sheep and even the digestive biscuit
all stem from the city, while hundreds of other theories and
creations have their roots in the capital.
Even now,
Edinburgh continues to lead the way in stem cell research and
regenerative medicine, biotechnology, engineering,
microelectronics, informatics, genomics, optoelectronics and
renewable 
energy.
But what must rank as one of the most unusual inventions was
revealed this week by scientists at the University of Edinburgh:
Glowing bugs which can find landmines.
Ok, so they’re not quite the radioactive spiders from Mars that
can smell landmines from 3 miles away that we envisaged when we
first saw the headlines, but that is a pretty amazing discovery.
Not much use on the Royal Mile perhaps, but given that around two
fifths of the world’s countries are plagued with landmines, you can
start to see the potential. So, as far as
inventions go, this one is definitely streets ahead.
And as with all inventions that begin life as something
important, chances are they’ll end up being developed for
commercial purposes too. Just think of the untold multitudes of
spondoolicks waiting for the person that can adapt the technology
in order to help us locate our car keys...
