Summer 2002

A shrinking world inside agriculture
By Steve Tally

A shrinking world inside agriculture

Food scientist Bruce Applegate is one of many Purdue researchers working in nanotechnology, a new science that rearranges atoms or molecules to create new products. (Photo by Tom Campbell)

As a post-doctoral researcher, Bruce Applegate was working on building a type of computer that uses genetically modified bacteria instead of transistors, an idea that many are still exploring.

To develop the modified bacteria, Applegate, now an assistant professor of food science at Purdue, needed to create a nonsense line of code to bracket the line of genetic code used in the computing. For this, he arranged three-letter DNA codes so that they were in the order GCC-CCG-CCG-CUG-GAG-GGC-GCC-ACG-GAG, which, when converted to the shorthand alphabet biologists use to indicate the amino acids in a genome, becomes "Applegate."

Like any good craftsman, he was able to sign his work; except in this case his signature was at the molecular level.

Signature lines of genetic code for biological computers are one very quirky example of a new science called "nanotechnology." Scientists like Applegate say that in the 21st century nanotechnology will affect every one of us as it allows new, previously impossible or unimaginable products and systems to be developed.

What sort of things are these evangelists of nanotech talking about? Consider these future products and how they would affect various segments of society:

• Medicine--New vaccines tailor-made for each virus, and for each patient, so that they are many times more effective than current vaccines.
• Space--A spacecraft skin that incorporates biological materials that could repair itself, if punctured by minute particles.
• Food--Quick-testing computer chips that would rapidly determine if a food product contained any harmful bacteria or contaminants before they became a problem.
• Health--Small, disposable test kits, resembling home pregnancy tests, that could screen for any known pathogen in air, water, food, etc.
• Military--New uniforms that could keep U.S. soldiers warm or cool, dry and identified as friendly at all times. They could also help heal wounds.
• Agriculture--Microscopic sensors, applied to the skin of livestock or sprayed on crops, would alert farmers to the presence of disease-causing microbes.
• Environment--A new understanding of how pesticides move through soil at the nanoscale would allow us to make better predictions at the field scale in order to prevent groundwater contamination.

Aside from the fact that each of these nanotech products or ideas is a bit outlandish--some are even a bit mind-boggling--they have one thing in common. Each is currently under development at Purdue University .

A shrinking world inside agriculture