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Michigan State University
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100 years and still going strong
...................1938...................
Nicholas (BAE faculty member) demonstrating Wiant’s electron beam generator to visitors
1938 -Dennis Wiant, who served the Department from 1938 to 1964, obtained an electron beam generator in the fifties and used it to irradiate food. The goal was mold-free storage. The beam was easier to manage than the radioactive isotope, Cobalt-60 (which other researchers were testing). The beam worked well, but consumers were timid. Today only military rations, are sanitized this way. Wiant was ahead of his time with this high-tech food preservation method.
...................2006...................
left: A scanning electron micrograph of a polyaniline nanowire, 170 nm wide and 1,000 nm long.
right: Scanning electron micrograph of a polyaniline nanowire bundle.
BAE faculty member, Dr. Evangelyn “Vangie” Alocilja, is working on a polymer carbon nanotube-based biosensor to detect threats to the U.S. water supply, livestock industries and food supply chains. She hopes her biosensors, roughly the dimensions of a small stick of chewing gum, might eventually enable real-time field-based diagnosis of pathogenic contamination. Even with the best current technology, today it takes up to one week to confirm the existence of biohazardous agents – a category that includes everything from Salmonella to anthrax.
Excerpts from:
August 2005 Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station newsletter
Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering's 100 year History by Dr. John Gerrish
Archives:
Food Engineering | Ecosystems Engineering
