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Purdue Unveils a Tricorder
aeoneal writes "According to Science Daily, mass spectrometry is no longer limited to what can be taken to the lab. Purdue researchers have created a device they liken to a tricorder, a handy 20-lb. device that combines mass spectrometry with DESI (desorption electrospray ionization), allowing chemical composition to be determined outside of a vacuum chamber. Purdue suggests this could be useful for everything from detecting explosive substances or cancer to predicting disease. Researcher R. Graham Cooks says, 'We like to compare it to the tricorder because it is truly a hand-held instrument that yields information about the precise chemical composition of samples in a matter of minutes without harming the samples.'"
a handy 20-lb. device
"He's dead Jim."
"Well, I dropped the tricorder on his head."
In 1992 Harry Harrison (of SF fame) and Marvin Minsky (of AI fame) collaborated on The turing option, trying to merge Minsky's ideas about how an artificial mind could work with a SF story. Wasn't exactly a masterpiece, but there was an astonishing twist: In the book a brilliant scientist creates the first true AI and embeds it into a sort of fractal robot, whose arms are split into more arms like branches on a tree, ending with thousands of autonomous arms with their own vision each. And the first place this system is used (after being stolen): in agriculture, picking up bugs.
So I will predict the first mass use of Purdue's Tricorder: Japanese toilets!!!. It can already recognize "biomarkers" in urine, so someone will build a cheap version of it into a toilet and every time you take a dump it will tell you what you should not have been eating, how sick you will be tomorrow and that if you continue that way your insurance won't cover your therapy. It will save the health systems billions.
.Oh, and I'm serious about the toilet part.
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The research team has used the device to ... identify cocaine on $50 bills in less than 1 second.
REAL playas use Benjamins to snort blow!
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
a handy 20-lb. device
Must be the ST:TOS version. At 20 lb, I would imagine that a shoulder strap is mandatory wear. Thanks, but I'll wait until the ST:TNG version hits.
Insightful. But it can go the other way: Many laptops these days are more like boat anchors. Well, the ones running Vista, anyway.
*clarification: Vista does not run well on boat anchors. They really prefer an Aqua interface.*
the boston police should be happy about this
Data: Geordi, the Galorndon core is unstable. We need to beam you up to the Enterprise immediately.
Geordi: Hold on Data. I seem to be picking be picking residual biophotonic signatures on my tricorder... wait, it's still scanning. Let me get back to you in a few minutes.
After carrying one of those around all day with a shoulder strap you'd welcome a Vulcan nerve pinch to ease the pain.
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
Spock: It looks like a toaster Jim.
Jim: Spock...what's a toaster?
Spock: It was a early 21st century tool for draining primitive power sources.
Jim: Why would they need such a tool?
Spock: The existence of such a tool defies logic Jim.
Dr. McCoy: YOU VILE EARTH BASHING VULCAN. Everything that was made by pre-space fairing human defies logic.
Dr. McCoy: I was used to prepare food, YOU POINTY-EARED AUTOMATON.
Jim: Oh look...toast
What does a viola have to do with anything?
It's how drunk Frenchmen say "voila"...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
"I wonder what the range is?"
It can go up to 11.
a handy 20-lb. device
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.