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posted by takyon on Monday August 13 2018, @07:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the three-mm-island dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by stretch611 on Monday August 13 2018, @11:52PM

    by stretch611 (6199) on Monday August 13 2018, @11:52PM (#721173)

    If I was wearing a microbrewery, I would care more about it keeping me supplied with my daily beer consumption instead of caring about radiation exposure.

    ofc, I doubt it could be called "micro"-brewery with my daily consumption.

    --
    Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
  • (Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday August 14 2018, @12:18AM

    by legont (4179) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @12:18AM (#721180)

    Just checking..

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:26AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:26AM (#721201)

    This is really clever: put a lot of little living things on a filter, see how much radiation kills, and you have a good meter of radiation. It's a strong(ish) example of why patents should exist. This idea is obvious once somebody says to do it... but without that statement in advance, I probably wouldn't have thought this up. On the other hand, the "in retrospect it's obvious" may be an argument why patents should not exist, as currently envisioned.

    As a side note, though... it is also an argument why things would need to be proven rather than just being a good idea. I could imagine yeast being in spore form or something else weird which makes the extra-resistant to radiation, or something.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday August 14 2018, @06:50AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday August 14 2018, @06:50AM (#721260) Homepage
      Anyone who's ever home brewed should realise this is a terrible idea, because they'll recognise the phrase "how's the starter doing"and realise it's being converted into "is the detector ready"?
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:05AM (#721262)

      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.

  • (Score: 1) by optotronic on Tuesday August 14 2018, @02:03AM

    by optotronic (4285) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @02:03AM (#721205)

    My first read of the summary and article had me thinking you activated the yeast (by adding water), then exposed it to radiation while the badge was hooked up to reading device. I was concerned about the life of the yeast once activated. A second read of the article makes it look like you use the badge with the unactivated yeast. Radiation hurts or kills the unactivated yeast. When done with the badge you finally add water and connect to a measuring device to see how much radiation the badge received.

    Pretty clever, although I was expecting a live readout during use.

  • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:11AM

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @07:11AM (#721264) Homepage Journal

    But our nuclear companies are having trouble staying in business. Hard to compete with cheaply made, poor quality electric (solar&wind). And too many VERY EXPENSIVE regulations. We're cutting a lot of those regulations. But if our nuclear folks can sell very special beer, that's tremendous. Making money is so important!!

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:21PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Tuesday August 14 2018, @01:21PM (#721348) Journal

    "I don't understand comrad Gorky, you are suffering from severe radiation poisoning and your dosimeter reads nothing."
    "Perhaps it is broken. I will get another. *Hic*"

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