A Photo Puzzle

[xSilverPhinx]

Very interesting. I thought they would use other animals to sniff out landmines, which can perform the task without the need for their handler to be close by, such as a small dog, maybe.

Would a chihuahua detonate one of those mines? 

But maybe I'm underestimating these rats. They are really cute though!

Do you know what species they are? They look rather big to be Rattus norvegicus, or common rat.

[hermes2015]

Very interesting. I thought they would use other animals to sniff out landmines, which can perform the task without the need for their handler to be close by, such as a small dog, maybe.

Would a chihuahua detonate one of those mines? 

Do you know what species they are? They look rather big to be Rattus norvegicus, or common rat.

I only know that they are called African Giant Pouched rats (according to the website).

Why rats? Well, the story I was told is that the guy who started the project grew up in a Belgian city. As an obviously bright young man he started wondering whether rats could perhaps help us in some way, instead of just being seen as pests to be exterminated in cities.

[Bad Penny II]

Very interesting. I thought they would use other animals to sniff out landmines, which can perform the task without the need for their handler to be close by, such as a small dog, maybe.

Would a chihuahua detonate one of those mines? 

But maybe I'm underestimating these rats. They are really cute though!

Do you know what species they are? They look rather big to be Rattus norvegicus, or common rat.

Dogs are used of course.
Herbie is on the list of Australian lives wasted in Afghanistan.
He didn't get his own number on the list, he had to share it with his human (13).
I think he should of but perhaps they'd have been happy sharing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Australian_Defence_Force_casualties_in_Afghanistan

[Dave]

Most rats I have met seemed quite intelligent, that goes for the rodent variety as well.

Ferrets might make a good substitute. Wonder if they vould be trained to search cavities in collapsed buildings. Little GPS/audio transmitter on a collar and train them to vocalise if they find a person.

[hermes2015]

Ferrets might make a good substitute. Wonder if they vould be trained to search cavities in collapsed buildings. Little GPS/audio transmitter on a collar and train them to vocalise if they find a person.

Sounds like an excellent idea for a business. Shall we start a company to do that? With all your money and my winged feet it is sure to work.

[Biggus Dickus]

Very interesting thread Hermes, and nice pictures you took. The photo of the lab equipment you posted, is for analyzing the soil samples?


I watched a short documentary on the use of these large rats for the purpose of locating land-mines sometime ago that was quite interesting, trying to locate the one I watched, and if I can come across it I'll post it.

Rats were chosen for several reasons according to the film I saw, one because they are lightweight they won't trigger the land-mine with their body weight, and  also because they are intelligent enough to be trained. They don't respond to vocal commands, so I believe they use clicks to communicate and reward the rats with food.

I also believe these large rats only have a normal life-span of only 8-9 years, and it takes almost a year to train them from birth so they don't get several years worth of work out of a rat before it's retired.

I have a personal dislike of rats, but this program and these rats are special. Thanks for posting Hermes

[hermes2015]

Very interesting thread Hermes, and nice pictures you took. The photo of the lab equipment you posted, is for analyzing the soil samples?

You are welcome! That kind of GC-MS is not just for soil. They are used in general for the analysis of organic target compounds in environmental, petrochemical, clinical, and really any kind of chemical samples. A very important application area is forensics. Watch CSI and you can get an idea; apart from a few bloopers, the CSI programs are actually quite a good representation of the type of work we can do on that kind of equipment. As an organic chemist I move around in all those labs to train analysts.

[Dave]

Very interesting thread Hermes, and nice pictures you took. The photo of the lab equipment you posted, is for analyzing the soil samples?

You are welcome! That kind of GC-MS is not just for soil. They are used in general for the analysis of organic target compounds in environmental, petrochemical, clinical, and really any kind of chemical samples. A very important application area is forensics. Watch CSI and you can get an idea; apart from a few bloopers, the CSI programs are actually quite a good representation of the type of work we can do on that kind of equipment. As an organic chemist I move around in all those labs to train analysts.

There was a short piece on the radio where the sort of info various parts of the human body can give up to appropriate equipment was explained - incredible!

Was the machine purchased by the team for this one oroject, must be incredibly expensive? Or was it rented? Though I do remember making a case fir a £3000 piece of kit, in the early 70s, for a big project . . . But I really wanted it for several other jobs and just general lab kit!

Since the project was a government job and at cost I got my toy. What's three grand in 300 odd grand estimated cost?

OK, about 1%, I know.

But my boss could see that bit of the future as well and endorsed the application.

[hermes2015]

Was the machine purchased by the team for this one oroject, must be incredibly expensive? Or was it rented? ....

It was purchased, which is the usual way it is done. The price for the one shown would be around US$ 130 000.

In forensic work, the courts normally only accept results obtained on this kind of equipment (we call it 3D data). That is why our police forensics labs own in excess of 50 of these.