LABONFOIL: A Portable Bond-Style Lab

Zothecula writes "A European project coordinated by Ikerlan and CIC microGUNE is developing a James Bond-style automated laboratory called 'LABoratory skin patches and smart cards based ON FOILs and compatible with a smartphone' (LABONFOIL). Using lab-on-a-chip technology and smart patches to detect a wide variety of substances and diagnose diseases, the goal of the project is to create a cheap, portable laboratory that can interact with smart devices."

Comments

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

'LABoratory skin patches and smart cards based ON FOILs and compatible with a smartphone' (LABONFOIL)

That is not how acronyms work.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Neither the summary nor TFA claim it was an acronym. The project authors must choose a short name so that their the project can be easily referred to in submission or evaluation forms and also in a way that the EU project officer can remember it well (each officer monitors dozens of projects). LABONFOIL is just a very good name, and it happens not to be an acronym.

Re:Wow

[GTRacer]

True, but the actual project website specifically does, as pointed out below by GrumpySteen: "LabOnFoil is the acronym chosen to designate the project [...]"

LabOnFoil Project page

Re:Wow

[SleazyRidr]

Yeah, sometimes you look at a hilariously obvious acronym and think, "wow, that's kinda cool." I look at LABONFOIL and think, "you didn't even try."

Can we please not write it that way?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to go ahead and start writing it LabOnFoil now, and you can all join me when you realize how much more readable that is, okay?

Re:Can we please not write it that way?

[GrumpySteen]

That's how it's written on the actual website, too. The only place it's in all caps is in the logo.

LabOnFoil is the acronym chosen to designate the project named "Laboratory Skin Patches and SmartCards based on foils and compatible with a smartphone"

The author of the gizmag article is a dumbass who copied and pasted text, then went out of his way to fuck up the capitalization and needlessly capitalize "on foil" when the people behind the project are doing no such thing.

But then it's an article on gizmag, so what do you really expect?

Acronym

[ArcadeMan]

As far as i know this is not the way aCRONYms work, Mate.

Re:Acronym

[wonkey_monkey]

No-one said it was an acronym.

Re:Acronym

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a quasi acronym; a technical term shortened to a marketing buzzword.

Re:Acronym

[ArcadeMan]

automated laboratory called 'LABoratory skin patches and smart cards based ON FOILs and compatible with a smartphone' (LABONFOIL).

That's how acronyms are usually described, "Complete Name (acronym)" and the letters LAB ON FOIL are capitalized.

This is as stupid as me writing "10 + 30 = 500" and then telling you that's not bad math, I just happened to write something that uses mathematical signs.

Re:Acronym

[Anonymous Coward]

That's how acronyms are usually described, "Complete Name (acronym)"

That is also how abbreviations are described in general, including ones that are not initialisms or acronyms.

"Bond-Style"

[Anonymous Coward]

To what is this referring?

Re:"Bond-Style"

[SleazyRidr]

After my shock at the piss-poor backronym, my next thought was how this relates to James Bond. Q had a fairly well stocked laboratory without having to resort to any foil at all.

Scary

[sosume]

The only area I can image this technology to be succesful in is surveillance. I really hate all the electronic snooping, sniffing and profiling. Can we please have a revolution?

Re:Scary

[Anonymous Coward]

If you'd ever had a colonoscopy, you'd really appreciate the non-invasive method of detecting colon cancer. It was mentioned in TFA, BTW.

Re:Scary

[quantumghost]

If you'd ever had a colonoscopy, you'd really appreciate the non-invasive method of detecting colon cancer. It was mentioned in TFA, BTW.

Sorry, but this device ain't gonna fix that. As per their webpage they use a test for CEA as a marker for recurrence of cancer. This is not even an effective screening test, and nothing that isn't already available. Better get your prep ready, you're gonna get probed again!

Bond style? Really?

[l0ungeb0y]

So it will manufacture pen guns and 10 in 1 Rolex's?
Oh... it will only "detect a wide variety of substances and diagnose diseases"
Because we all know that Bond did forensics and cured the sick.
FYI: Bond was not a CSI type or a detective -- he was an assassin.

Re:Bond style? Really?

[ArcadeMan]

Maybe they were referring to the portable lab that Bond used in Casino Royale.

Re:Bond style? Really?

[slapout]

Maybe it's for detecting all Bond's STDs.

Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

When can I 3D print one at home?

Dr. James Bond

[SpectreBlofeld]

Someone's obviously never seen a James Bond film in their life.

Re:Dr. James Bond

[wonkey_monkey]

Someone's obviously not got around to watching Casino Royale.

(admittedly, one medical gadget from one film isn't much to base such a comparison on - McCoy's tricorder would have been a better one)

Re:Dr. James Bond

[Darinbob]

That's a Q-style lab, not a James-Bond style lab.

Yeah, when I think "Bond-style lab"...

[jeffb (2.718)]

...I think of counters ticking down to self-destruct, consoles erupting in pyrotechnics, and impossibly hot women trying desperately to escape. Pretty sure I don't want all of those in a portable form-factor.

that's cool but...

[slashmydots]

I really, actually wanted a tricorder though.

LABONFOIL?

[HtR]

For some reason, they really seem to be pretending that their title is some kind of acronym, but why? Do all the cool projects have acronyms? Maybe they just like writing it in all caps?

Unbonding this...

[vuo]

The story completely fails to elaborate on the contents of the box. If it's just an instant test for drugs, then there's little new. The idea that you could just replace a general analytical laboratory with a single gizmo is the product of a mind untrained in chemistry. A gas, liquid or ion chromatograph has a column, which must be of at least a certain length to produce good resolution, and ramping up the pressure would hardly be an option, since that would require heavier pressure-proof lines and pumps. How to set up a column oven inside a credit card is not obvious either. A mass spectrometer has a high-vacuum chamber (high vacuum = thick steel) and a strong magnet; the smallest are tabletop-size. Likewise, NMR spectrometers have a strong magnet, and have been miniaturized to a 1x1x1 ft cubes, but I don't see how, barring discovery of new elements, the magnets could be made smaller. (NQR might be an option, but that would then beg the question of how to miniaturize the radio transmitter and receiver. And no one has, as of yet, actually produced a working field NQR, ADE 651 not withstanding) For inorganic analysis, XRF is probably the closest, with handheld devices being the smallest. XPS or Auger is again high vacuum and involves vacuum tubes, so no luck here either. This equipment would cover much of the functionality of a 'James Bond' lab, and would still be useless without a trained analytical chemist.