

Giant Rats Sniff Out Landmines in Tanzania - juanplusjuan
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/mar/05/heroic-giant-rats-sniff-out-landmines-in-tanzania

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Fat_Rat
You can sponsor your own rat here:
[https://www.apopo.org/en/adopt](https://www.apopo.org/en/adopt) They're also
used to sniff out tuberculosis.

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bayesianhorse
For a few years now I am toying with the idea to create a "sniffing" device
based on a fish tank. Multiple outlets around the sides, the diluted analytic
solution is delivered on one outlet, the other outlets only carry tank water.
The fish are trained to expect food at the site with a certain "smell". An
overhead camera would detect the movement and distinguish it from random
behavior.

While fish are certainly able to smell minute concentrations, I never quite
found a viable use case for this idea. For disease diagnostics, the idea of
cumulating the pathogens in the fish and their water isn't particularly
appealing either.

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devenson
> Apopo says its rats can each search 200 square metres of land in just 20
> minutes; people using metal detectors would take five days to search the
> same area.

Why would it take 5 days for a human to search approximately 2000 sq ft of
space? Seems incorrect.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
2000 square feet is 50' by 40', now go over that inch by inch with a metal
detector, and you'd better be sure you didn't miss a single spot, and oh
there's vegetation and terrain.

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edward
Similar story:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7760643](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7760643)

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protomyth
So, that joke scene on West Wing was actually true. Its amazing how looking at
a problem sideways can yield some amazing results.

