JET GERM ALERT: scientists have developed an airline alarm system that will both detect if a passenger is carrying a virulent infection and protect their fellow flyers from it.

Fear of highly contagious bugs in airline cabins was highlighted early this month after an American lawyer infected with a highly resistant tuberculosis strain was found to have flown on a transatlantic jet. He was quarantined and his fellow passengers were screened. Now researchers at Purdue University, Indiana, are developing an onboard system that uses four highly sensitive detectors which can pick up virulent bugs such as those sneezed by someone with bird flu. It uses a computer program to track backwards to where the bugs came from, using a system called “inverse simulation”.

This takes into account the cabin’s airflow patterns, airspeed and temperature, says a report in Indoor Air: International Journal of Indoor Environment and Health. “We can identify the location, plus or minus one seat,” says Quingyan Chen, the lead investigator. If an infectious agent is detected, the system may either drop air masks to passengers or flow air over their heads to push away contamination.

Chen says that the new system could also be used to combat terrorism, by identifying passengers who were releasing chemical or biological agents.

Bush remedy

THE SECRET of long life may be creosote, claims a study for the US National Institute of Aging. Richard Miller, of Michigan University, says an extract from creosote bushes has been found to extend the lives of lab mice significantly.

The creosote bush has long been used as a herbal healer by Native Americans. It smells pungently like the preserver used until recently on garden fences, which is now banned as a carcinogen.

Miller says in Aging Cell that NDGA a compound taken from the shrub, extended the lives of male mice in three separate tests. But it worked only on males, for some unknown reason. No human tests have yet been tried.

Pound zeros

WANT to avoid overspending on holiday? Avoid countries where banknotes have loads of zeroes on them, report psychologists in the Journal of Consumer Research. Their tests show that we see notes with thousands or millions on them as Monopoly money. But we hang on to our wallets in nations where the notes’ face values are lower than ours.

I will . . . cheer up

MARRIAGE is indeed made for misery, say family researchers who report that depressed brides and grooms get far more out of heading up the aisle than happy people.

Adrianne French, of Ohio State University, studied more than 3,000 people and found that those who had suffered depression got the biggest psychological boost out of getting wed, even if their marriages turned out to be pretty average.

Her study, in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, says that marriage lifts the miserable 7.56 points on the depression scale, compared with the happy, who gained only 1.87 points.

Robo-op

A BRAIN-DRILLING robot has been invented by an Israeli professor to beat the growing challenge facing surgeons – ever more precise operations for their shaky fingers.

The tiny robot built by professor Leo Joskowicz, of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, guides itself using electronic scans of the patient’s brain.

Once precisely placed, the robot locks itself into place, drills a small hole into the skull and guides the surgeon’s fingers as they perform intricate operations. Results show that patients suffer less pain after their neurosurgery.

Sex on eight legs

LAST month this column revealed how Brazilian boffins have found a Viagra-type drug in spider venom. Now Chilean scientists say their local black widow’s venom not only gives the same penile boost, it also contains a human spermicidal contraceptive that’s better than any gel on the market. All we need now is a spider that brings flowers as well.

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