New Use For Cell Phones?

A NEW USE FOR CELL PHONES?

A new 007-esque cellphone hack could bring cheap, on-the-spot disease detection to even the most remote villages on earth.

Using only an LED, plastic light filter and some wires, scientists at UCLA scientists have modified a simple cellphone into a portable blood tester capable of detecting HIV, malaria and other illnesses!

As it stands, blood tests require either humongous machines that cost nearly a million bucks or technicians who identify and count cells manually under a microscope. Of course, these are slow, expensive processes — but, soon, they could be things of the past.

UCLA researcher Dr. Aydogan Ozcan images thousands of blood cells instantly by placing them on an off-the-shelf camera sensor and lighting them with a filtered-light source (coherent light, for you science buffs).

The filtered light exposes distinctive qualities of the cells, which are then interpreted by Ozcan’s custom software. By analyzing the cell types present in a much larger sample, a more accurate diagnosis can be made in a matter of minutes. No more sending blood away to a lab and waiting days or weeks for the results.

Can you imagine the good that’ll do — especially in time (as well as lives) saved? It’s amazing what man can come up with …

CHRISTMAS MEWS

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