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."

Comments

Re:I smell the strong odor of SULPHUR

[Bryansix]

Thanks for that post Hugo Chavez. Now get back to what you are good at; changing the constitution of your country so you can stay in power forever.

Re:Each pulse may be only a few million billionths

[ichthyoboy]

Time to learn your SI prefixes: milli = 10^-3. One millisecond = 0.001 second. One million billionth of a second would be 10^-15, also known as a femtosecond.