BYU scientist creates chemical detector

AMERICAN FORK — When U.S. Army special forces infiltrate a factory,

they need to know quickly whether they've found chemical weapons so

they can call in an airstrike.

Similar speedy information is important to soldiers who believe they

have been exposed to a chemical attack or to police and firefighters

who respond to a terrorist attack or a spill that could include

hazardous materials.

Completely reliable information about chemicals in an attack or a spill

has not been available without taking samples to a laboratory, but now

Brigham Young University scientist Milt Lee and the American Fork

company he co-founded have created a miniaturized, lightweight device

that recalls the fictional Tricorder of the TV and movie franchise

"Star Trek."

"This is a historic occasion for Brigham Young University," said Mike

Alder, head of the university's technology transfer office. "(On

Wednesday), we signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Torion

Technologies, which has licensed 10 patents from BYU. Because we did,

the world is a safer place."

The Guardion-7 chemical detector is a 28-pound portable device that can

detect, without false positives and with exact specificity, a wide

range of chemicals in fewer than five minutes, even in harsh

environments like the Iraqi desert.

The U.S. Department of Defense, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and

other Army-related industries have provided $5 million in grants for