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As doomsday millennium cults begin to worry law enforcers around the world,
an accurate sensor for sarin—the nerve gas used by Aum Shinriko terrorists
on the Tokyo underground in 1995—has been developed by chemists at the
University of Maryland. The team has developed a compound called platinum
1,2-enedithiolate, which fluoresces red light in the presence of gaseous
phosphate esters, the active molecules in sarin. Robert Pilato, one of the team,
says previous detection methods were prone to false positives. “Our sensor
molecule is less easily fooled,” he told New ¾«¶«´«Ã½. The sensing compound
could be immobilised in a polymer and built into a hand-held detector or used in
air intakes in airports and subway stations.