Cellphone converts into powerful chemical detector

With only $50 worth of components, an ordinary cellphone transforms into a sophisticated scientific instrument, capable of identifying chemicals, drugs, and pathogens

07-May-2021 - Scientists from Texas A&M have developed an extension to an ordinary cellphone that turns it into an instrument capable of detecting chemicals, drugs, biological molecules, and pathogens. The advance is reported in Reviews of Scientific Instruments, by AIP Publishing. Modern cellphones include ...

Long-Sought Workaround to Helium Shortage?

Neutron Detection Method

12-Jun-2018 - Doctors use X-rays to see inside people, and scientists use neutrons to peer inside advanced materials and devices such as fuel cells to better understand and improve them. But a critical shortage of a rare form of helium used for detecting neutrons—which are difficult to spot directly—threatens ...

Illuminating the field of microscopy with nanoparticle 'buckyswitch'

14-Jul-2017 - Visualizing biological cells under a microscope was just made clearer, thanks to research conducted by graduate student Yifei Jiang and principal investigator Jason McNeill of Clemson University's department of chemistry. With the help of Rhonda Powell and Terri Bruce of Clemson's Light Imaging ...

Method improves accuracy of imaging systems

09-Feb-2017 - New research provides scientists looking at single molecules or into deep space a more accurate way to analyze imaging data captured by microscopes, telescopes and other devices. The improved method for determining the position of objects captured by imaging systems is the result of new research ...

Sniffing like a dog can improve trace detection of explosives

05-Dec-2016 - By mimicking how dogs get their whiffs, a team of government and university researchers have demonstrated that "active sniffing" can improve by more than 10 times the performance of current technologies that rely on continuous suction to detect trace amounts of explosives and other ...

New technique could improve detection of concealed nuclear materials

19-Apr-2016 - Researchers have demonstrated proof of concept for a novel low-energy nuclear reaction imaging technique designed to detect the presence of "special nuclear materials" -- weapons-grade uranium and plutonium -- in cargo containers arriving at U.S. ports. The method relies on a combination of ...

New material for detecting photons captures more quantum information

07-Jan-2016 - Detecting individual particles of light just got a bit more precise - by 74 picoseconds to be exact - thanks to advances in materials by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers and their colleagues in fabricating superconducting nanowires. Although 74 picoseconds may not ...

New tabletop detector 'sees' single electrons

Magnet-based setup may help detect the elusive mass of neutrinos

23-Apr-2015 - MIT physicists have developed a new tabletop particle detector that is able to identify single electrons in a radioactive gas.As the gas decays and gives off electrons, the detector uses a magnet to trap them in a magnetic bottle. A radio antenna then picks up very weak signals emitted by the ...

Standoff sensing enters new realm with dual-laser technique

26-Mar-2012 - Identifying chemicals from a distance could take a step forward with the introduction of a two-laser system being developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In a paper published in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Ali Passian and colleagues present a ...

Portable device will quickly detect pathogens in developing countries

31-Jan-2012 - Two Cornell professors will combine their inventions to develop a handheld pathogen detector that will give health care workers in the developing world speedy results to identify in the field such pathogens as tuberculosis, chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV.Using synthetic DNA, Dan Luo, professor of ...