Cheaper Chemical Sensor
A new portable sensor system detects airborne organic chemicals about as accurately as a $25,000 machine confined to a lab. The device’s sensor element (above) holds an array of polymers deposited between capacitance plates; their ability to store electrical charge changes in specific ways when certain molecules are absorbed, enabling the device to identify those agents. The system incorporates a polymer called BSP3, invented at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, that is especially responsive to compounds such as nerve agents and certain pesticides.
Credit: Bruce Peterson
Keep Reading
Most Popular
The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it
Exclusive conversations that take us behind the scenes of a cultural phenomenon.
How Rust went from a side project to the world’s most-loved programming language
For decades, coders wrote critical systems in C and C++. Now they turn to Rust.
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
An approach that promised to democratize design may have done the opposite.
Sam Altman invested $180 million into a company trying to delay death
Can anti-aging breakthroughs add 10 healthy years to the human life span? The CEO of OpenAI is paying to find out.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.