Los agentes neurot\u00f3xicos degradan m\u00e1s o menos r\u00e1pidamente en presencia de humedad en sustancias qu\u00edmicas llamadas \u00e1cidos alquilmetilfosf\u00f3nicos. Estos son indicadores del empleo de dichos agentes pero, a su vez, se descomponen en mol\u00e9culas simples que no indican claramente el empleo del t\u00f3xico original. Un grupo de investigadores de la\u00a0University of Central Lancashire, y del Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, equivalente a nuestro CITEDEF; han descubierto un m\u00e9todo sencillo para mejorar el proceso de detecci\u00f3n, plantas de Mostaza Blanca, que se alimentan de los productos qu\u00edmicos del suelo,\u00a0concentr\u00e1ndolos\u00a0y permitiendo luego su detecci\u00f3n.<\/p>\n
OF ALL the nasty ways people have devised to harm each other, chemical weapons are among the worst. But even they have varying levels of unpleasantness. Mustard gas blisters the skin and lungs but is an inefficient way of killing. Nerve agents such as sarin, soman and VX are much more deadly. These can linger for days, and only tiny amounts are needed to cause uncontrollable muscle spasms. Death by suffocation follows swiftly as the victim\u2019s diaphragm stops working properly, and he cannot breathe.<\/p>\n
In a world where the use of chemical weapons is supposed to be prohibited, finding out when and where they have been deployed is important. But that is not as easy as it sounds. Though nerve agents hang around long enough to be formidable weapons, they degrade in the presence of moisture into chemicals called alkyl methylphosphonic acids. These are reliable signals something bad has happened but they, in turn, break down into simple molecules that leave no clear signature of the original poison.<\/p>\n
The result is that, within a month or two of an attack, concentrations of alkyl methylphosphonic acids left in the soil are too low for gas chromatography\u2014the tool normally used to search for traces of nerve gas\u2014to detect. What is needed is a way to concentrate the chemical signal. And a group of researchers from the University of Central Lancashire, in Britain, and the country\u2019s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, led by Matthew Baker, think they have one: the humble white mustard plant.<\/p>\n
White mustard (named after the colour of its seeds, not its flowers) grows rapidly in many sorts of soils. That makes it suitable for deployment all over the world. The researchers\u2019 crucial discovery, though, was that if the soil in which it is growing contains a nerve agent (they used VX) the plant will absorb it, metabolise it into alkyl methylphosphonic acids, and store those acids in its tissue. It will do so even when the agent\u2019s level in the soil is too low for chromatography to detect the poison directly. The plant\u2019s constant extraction of chemicals from the soil means the acids build up in it to a point where detection is possible. Regardless of soil type, Dr Baker found, evidence for the presence of VX could be extracted from plants at least 45 days after application. Bad guys beware.<\/p>\n