New Corn Technology: Scientists Are All Eyes And Ears.

New Corn Technology: Scientists Are All Eyes and Ears.

For years scientists have sifted through corn by hand, looking for fungus with ultra-violet light. If the kernels are contaminated, they turn a vivid greenish yellow. The process is necessary because contaminated corn gives off a carcinogenic by-product called aflatoxin that some researchers blame for high rates of liver cancer in Asia and Africa, where corn is a food staple. New technology is using photoacoustics to find contaminated corn, changing inspection from a low-tech, labor intensive process to a high-tech, low labor process.

The new technology uses photoacoustics, the use of light to generate sound. When the corn absorbs light, it gets hotter, warming the surrounding air. Quickly blocking the light rapidly cools the solids. The plummeting air pressure makes a sound like a musical tone. A computer is used to measure the sounds coming from ears of corn, analyzing them using a neural network to determine the patterns of infected corn from the pattern of healthy corn.

Corn infected with fungus sounds different from healthy corn. Because the fungus burrows into the surface of corn kernels, a pockmarked, infected kernel will give off heat differently form a solid, healthy one, creating the different sound. The computer was able to use the sound waves to correctly identify 96% of contaminated corn, which is 10% more than the traditional ultra-violet test.

The new technology tests more corn faster. Currently, the technology is being tried on conveyor belts that move 80 feet a second instead of testing one ear at a time. Plus, the technology eliminates the need to prepare the corn for testing. The industry is excited to see if the technology can transition from idea to practical tool because it has so many benefits.

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