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Wearable 'microbrewery' saves human body from radiation damage
Purdue University researchers have engineered yeast "microbreweries" within disposable badges made of freezer paper, aluminum and tape. Simply adding a drop of water activates the yeast to show radiation exposure as read by an electronic device. On a commercial level, the readout device could one day be a tablet or phone. The badge could also be adapted in the future for nuclear power plant workers and victims of nuclear disasters.
[...] The success of the badge lies in the quick and measurable response of yeast to radiation: The higher the radiation dose, the higher the percentage of yeast cells that die. Wetting the badge activates the cells that are still alive to eat glucose and release carbon dioxide – the same fermentation process responsible for brewing beer and making bread rise. When carbon dioxide bubbles at the surface, ions also form. The concentration of these ions increases the electrical conductivity of yeast, which can be measured by hooking up the badge to a readout system.
"We use the change in electrical properties of the yeast to tell us how much radiation damage it incurred. A slow decrease in electrical conductivity over time indicates more damage," said Rahim Rahimi, Purdue postdoctoral researcher in electrical and computer engineering.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:05AM
Just because people like you don't find obvious/publicly known things obvious doesn't mean patents should exist.
It's not too different from this idea: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/canary_in_a_coal_mine [wiktionary.org]
Despite what the article claims there are plenty of instant dosimeters, so this yeast thingy isn't the first one and it might not ever even be better at anything than the existing alternatives. So that might be the real reason why nobody has bothered trying to build such stuff - e.g. it's like trying to go back to using canaries to detect gas in coal mines when you already have better tech.
In most cases the difficult part is not coming up with ideas. The difficulty is in actually implementing the ideas and building stuff.
Currently patents allow people who can't actually build the stuff yet to patent stuff so they can get money from others even if those others can figure out how to actually build the stuff first. For example: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-awarded-patent-for-solar-powered-contact-lens-2015-10/?IR=T [businessinsider.com] .
That's broken and actually slows down progress.
A better way for average people to decide whether to reward innovation by others is in hindsight. Currently some average person has to go figure out whether something doesn't have prior art or not or is innovative enough etc in order to decide whether to grant a broad and long monopoly. It's better to reward innovation in hindsight with prizes. That way even if people are too stupid and only realize something is innovative 30 years later you can still reward the inventors if they are still alive.