Biochips may lead to Star-Trek-like tricorders

rde writes "This week's (print edition of) New Scientist tells us that Motorola's BioChip Systems Unit are building a biochip that "will eventually produce hand-held machines that can perform genetic tests or detect disease" -- a tricorder by any other name. Their web page only points you to the hard copy, but details can be found on CMPNet. " Darnit-I still need to know when I can put the network jack in my head. Writing all this e-mail through thought would be a lot nicer.

Comments

Biological sensors and biological interfaces

[Christopher Thomas]

rde writes "This week's (print edition of) New Scientist tells us that Motorola's BioChip Systems Unit are building a biochip that "will eventually produce hand-held machines that can perform genetic tests or detect disease" -- a tricorder by any other name.

Not by a fair margin, if they're talking about the kind of biological sensors that I've been hearing about. By combining biological components with integrated circuit chips, you can fabricate sensors on the chip that are sensitive to various complicated organic chemicals and the like - but you'd still have to do something like breathe on the chip or put a blood sample on the chip to get a reading. You can't just wave it at someone and get information.

This kind of device does have many applications. Detailed organic chemical analysis right now requires some fairly expensive equipment (gas chromatographs, mass spectrometers, and IR and UV spectrometers). If you can do useful work with a smaller, cheaper component, then it will indeed quietly revolutionize substantial parts of the medical and forensic and chemical analysis industries. However, we're still a ways away from waving a lipstick container at somebody and getting a medical diagnosis. What this will mainly do is give you good quality readings on organic compounds suspended in a liquid or wafting through the air.

I'll have to read the specific article in question before making more detailed comments.

Darnit-I still need to know when I can put the network jack in my head. Writing all this e-mail through thought would be a lot nicer.

This is being worked on. Prof. Kensall Wise has been publishing papers on neural interfaces for over a decade, and at least one other group exists doing similar things. Heck, _I_ hope to be doing similar things (my fourth-year project; I'll post a link once it's underway). Reading thoughts electronically is probably impractical, but there are still a number of nifty things that you can do with regards to interfacing with peripherals.