Mike Dziekan Receives U.S. Patent 7,196,631

Society for Amateur Scientist member and The Citizen Scientist author Mike Mike Dziekan received U.S. Patent 7,196,631 on 27 March 2007. Mike's coworker Joseph Bango is listed as the co-inventor. The patent is for a "Method of Utilizing Existing Fire Alarm Systems and Exisiting Smoke Detectors to Detect Aerosolized Radioactive Material."

The patent is for "A method of utilizing existing fire panel infrastructure to fight terrorism. The fire alarm system's ionization type smoke detectors, in addition to detecting the presence of smoke, would also detect the presence of airborne radioactive particles by effecting only a minor software modification." This dual function of the system's fire alarm detectors provides a means to detect radioactive particles that might indicate "a 'Dirty Bomb' or 'Dirty Aerosol' release, or a non-intentional release of radioactive particles due to an accident or natural disaster."

Congratulations, Mike for this new achievement.

For more about how to obtain a U.S. patent, Mike recommends Patent It Yourself by Dave Pressman. "I don't get a penny if he sells any books," Mike writes, "but it is a good book." Mike reports that a patent examiner he knows is reading the book. This book and a variety of other patent books are available online at sites like www.amazon.com .

Mike's latest article for The Citizen Scientist was last summer's two-part series called "A Matter of Time." Click here for Part 1 and Part 2 .

Forrest M. Mims III