Echo
Insects offer new hope in Michigan State University’s fight against forever chemicals
|
Researchers at Michigan State University are exploring an unexpected new tool that could reshape how scientists detect so-called forever chemicals in lakes, rivers and wetlands across the Great Lakes. Scientists have discovered that locusts can sniff out PFAS contaminants down to parts per trillion, a level of detection far beyond most conventional sensors. The new tool: insects. “This tells us insects can detect PFAS at very, very low concentrations,” said Dr. Debajit Saha, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at MSU, who has spent years studying how insects process smells. “It opens the door to developing a real‑time scanning device that could be deployed in the Great Lakes region.”
A close-up view of the experiment.
