NZ research on anthrax device suddenly relevant

By ANNE BESTON, Science reporter

New Zealand researcher Vishwa Shukla helped invent an anthrax-detecting machine two years ago, but no one had any use for it.

But the machine, known as a digital synthesiser and analyser, suddenly became hot property after the anthrax scares that followed the attack on the World Trade Center.

The Auckland University of Technology senior lecturer in computing recalls that originally no one wanted the device.

"But after September 11 it became very important."

The machine was intended to be used by weapons inspectors in Iraq after the Gulf War to check for illegally stored biological weapons, but he doubts it was ever used.

Early next year it will be a key part of the massive security effort surrounding the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The portable equipment uses ultrasound to detect and identify biological material, even through more than 2cm of steel. Each biological organism, including the anthrax bacterium, has an ultrasound "footprint" the machine can read and identify.

The equipment is a more sophisticated version of another machine which could detect anthrax hidden within containers such as letters but which took 48 hours to return a result.

"We haven't got 48 hours, we need to know in one second, which is what this machine can do," said Mr Shukla, who lectures at AUT's Tech Park in Penrose.

The 55-year-old and a team of private researchers in the US, working closely with researchers at a US Government laboratory in New Mexico, will work solidly to have it ready in time for the Winter Olympics in early February.

While Mr Shukla and his group are responsible for the equipment design and construction, a US Government team is programming the ultrasound "signatures" of different biological agents for it to recognise.

Unfortunately, Mr Shukla's contribution to the team won't make him rich. The US companies involved paid for the research and have patented the device.

But the electronics engineer, who fell in love with New Zealand while on a trip here and emigrated from India, doesn't care about the money.

"You can't fight hate with hate, you have to use your intellectual resources and that's exactly what I have done."