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NIST Working On "Deathalyzer"
coondoggie writes to mention that a new optical technique for sensing small amounts of molecules in a person's breath has been developed by a researcher for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The goal is to create a fast, low-cost method for detecting disease. "In this approach, NIST researchers analyze human breath with 'frequency combs,' which are generated by a laser specially designed to produce a series of very short, equally spaced pulses of light. Each pulse may be only a few million billionths of a second long. The laser generates light as a series of very narrow frequency peaks equally spaced, like the teeth of a comb, across a broad spectrum."
I can see how this could affect premiums, let alone offerings.
"None for you, deathbreath!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Could we be seeing the demise of the drug/bomb sniffing dog with this new tech?
Maybe. But maybe we'll just see the rise of the electronic sniffing machines that can easily be surreptitiously programmed to report falsified findings, kinda like electronic voting machines.
I'm sure we're many of us familiar with the story of a few months back about the nursing home dog (perhaps cat?) that appeared to be able to smell impending fatality amongst the residents. And I personally will not forget the smell of cancer on my father's breath before he died early.
It's not beyond reason that the chemical composition of the breath might be detectably altered by disease. Nor that sensitive enough equipment might be able to detect this early and cheaply enough to be usable as a screening method.
In the hands of medics, sworn to confidentiality, this could help avoid considerable suffering and early, pointless death.
I don't see it as a threat to civil liberties. It's like the hypodermic. It's been used for many years as a tool in the psychiatric opression of political dissidents, been used to murder, been used to torture and so on and so forth.
But would you honestly rather the hypodermic had never existed? Of course not.
A hammer can be used to hurt you. Would you have them banned?
Personally, I'm hopeful about this one.
Why are you looking at me like that?