The zNOSE

Field-portable electronic chemical sensors

The technical difficulties of monitoring in real-time the chemical emissions of organisms under field conditions with high sensitivity has hampered ecological research. Recently, a commercially available technological breakthrough in portable detection promises to solve many of the difficulties of conducting manipulative experiments in the field. The zNose is a surface acoustic wave detector (SAW) coupled to a micro- and field-portable GC. With support from the National Science Foundation, the Niesenbaum lab is using the zNose to measure volatile emissions that might be involved in tri-trophic interactions