Headline Wired: Flower Power Takes on Land Mines

An interesting use of genetic engineering:

COPENHAGEN — A Danish biotech company has developed a genetically modified flower that could help detect land mines and it hopes to have a prototype ready for use within a few years….

The genetically modified weed has been coded to change color when its roots come in contact with nitrogen dioxide evaporating from explosives buried in soil.

Within three to six weeks from being sowed over land mine- infested areas, the small plant, a Thale Cress, will turn a warning red when close to a land mine.

So, when you are wandering through a field and find a clump of blue flowers and a clump of red flowers, if you pick the blue flowers, you can return to your life as it was. But if you pick the red flowers, you will enter wonderland and see how deep the rabbit hole really goes.