The new devices use fluourescent dyes, chemicals, enzymes and even the antennae of crabs or slices of banana to detect toxins and other chemicals.

Some actions, including improved use of existing technology, can be taken immediately, the report says, but research and development are urgently needed in certain critical areas, such as finding better sensors to detect toxins.

C. difficile infections are most rapidly identified by an immunoenzymatic assay that detects bacterial toxins in the stool.

Among other things, if micro devices did not have to be hermetically sealed, they might be more useful as miniature sensors for detecting biological or chemical toxins.

"That might be useful, for example, for detecting toxins in lakes," he said.

But the system can detect only chemical toxins, not biological weapons like anthrax and smallpox.

The area postrema, one of the circumventricular organs, detects toxins in the blood and acts as a vomit-inducing center.

The use of pupal cases and larval skins allows for investigators to detect toxins in a body years after death.

The Phage-ligand technology is a technology to detect, bind and remove bacteria and bacterial toxins by using highly specific bacteriophage derived proteins.

Money from our dolphin encounters is helping develop diagnostic procedures to detect marine toxins in patients - allowing earlier and more effective treatment.