At the beach, a scientist collects a water sample. Is it clean? Or is it full of harmful microbes? You'd really like to know, NOW-but the tests take time. You'll hear about a faster way to check the water quality of Our Ocean World.
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Dr. Joan Rose is a researcher at the University of South Florida. She studies the viruses and other microbes associated with polluted waters.
"We're actually in the process of starting to look at a (edit) rapid technique for assessing pollution. So that we don't have to wait. Right now, we go out, and take the samples, we come back to the lab, run the test, but we don't get the results for about 24 hours or 48 hours, depending on the type of test. And for viruses we have to wait several weeks."
With Dr. Daniel Lim, also of the University of South Florida, Dr. Rose is developing a new approach-a kind of test called a "biosensor."
And it actually uses antibodies that are tagged to a little marker, and if the pollution, the contaminant of concern is there, you get a signal right away, within a few minutes."
The biosensor test is still under development. Joan Rose and Daniel Lim hope it will prove to be a practical way to test for pollution-so that you don't go swimming in dangerous waters. From Washington, I'm Marilyn Cooley.
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Our Ocean World is made possible by Royal Caribbean International and the research labs onboard its new ship, Explorer of the Seas - Royal Caribbean dot com.
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