‘Member the Tricorder? It was a device carried by Dr. McCoy in the original Star Trek series. It could determine any kind of disease or ailment with a few quick beeps and boops. To say a device like that would be a tremendous boon to modern medicine would be a gross understatement. Thanks to a team at Glasgow University, we may have just made our first step toward technobabble-level science.
Inspired by the Tricorder, the Glasgow team has invented the Multicorder, a small medical scanner device. The scanner plugs into any normal smartphone or tablet and, through a specialized app, scans and measures the levels of metabolites in a patient fluid sample. By tracking metabolites, scientists can get an idea of a patient’s current state of health. In particular, they can find and track special metabolites that serve as markers for conditions like heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. If this device could become commonplace, patients could catch the early warning signs of cancer even earlier, and all it would require is a quick scan from an inexpensive device.
