Move over TSA scanners, very soon the mice will be seen lurking through passengers' luggage at airports, if the detector created by Israeli scientists passes through testing stage.

Invented by Eran Lumbroso's firm BioExplorers, the detector will have three cartridges with enough room for eight of the mice to stay inside for four hours. Air is pumped into the cartridges every four hours and the mice will work on a four-hour shift, says a report in Telegraph quoting New Scientist.

The device was tested few months ago in a Tel Aviv shopping mall where the mice successfully picked out 22 people carrying mock explosives and drugs, the report said.

The idea may relieve the Transport Security Authority who are keen to use body scanners despite complaints of invading passengers' privacy.

But critics point out imminent failures that may arise out of such experiments. When Germans once wanted to use pigeons with brilliant eyesight to detect malformed medicine capsules, it failed, they say, giving the example of B.F. Skinner, and his 3 pigeon 'electronic' CCTV guidance system.

The firm is on a lookout for a bigger partner to manufacture the detector on a larger scale and Lumbroso promises results. It is as if they are smelling a cat and escaping. We detect the escape, he says.

Animal lovers, who were against using animals and especially the mice in labs for experiments, will soon take to roads protesting the new use of them in airports.

Privacy Israel Israel Israel