Smelling Disease

This from Scientific American. I looks like soon you will be able to go into your doctor's office, breathe into a machine and a diagnosis will pop out. A team at Stony Brook University, The State University of New York, have developed an "e-nose" that uses semiconductors to sniff out ills.

According to lead scientist Perena Gouma, "the sensor is highly sensitive to gaseous disease-signalling markers in the breath—it can detect specific molecules in parts per billion. The sensor chip is covered with spaghettilike metal oxide fibers that have diameters ranging from one to 100 nanometers (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter). The nanofibers' crystalline structure and the atomic configuration on their surfaces determine which compound can be detected."

But as the article notes, it may be a while before this technology shows up at your HMO, so don't hold your breath.