Doctor Who’s sonic screwdriver may become a reality in the near future, according to a group of scientists at a university in Australia.
Okay, we exaggerate a little.
Unlike the Doctor’s favoured gizmo that can do pretty much anything from opening locked doors to downloading a person’s consciousness, physicists say this hand-held device, which is still a concept at the moment, will use the power of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and mass spectrometry to perform a chemical analysis of molecules and identify diseases.
Researchers the Australian National University (ANU) say they were inspired by one particular function of the sonic screwdriver – scanning and identifying matter.
They were also looking at other sci-fi gadgets for inspiration – namely, the multi-purpose tricorder you’ve seen in Star Trek that provides detailed analysis of living things.
Combining the two ideas, the team then designed their concept gizmo – a diamond-based quantum device that can help doctors do chemical analyses easily and quite quickly.
As Dr Marcus Doherty, one of the physicists involved in the research, explains: “Laboratories and hospitals will have the power to do full chemical analyses to solve complex problems with our device that they can afford and move around easily.
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“This device is going to enable many people to use powerful instruments like molecular MRI machines and mass spectrometers much more readily.”
He believes the tool could also be used to identify complex protein molecules that are responsible for human diseases like cancer.
“Every great advance for microscopy has driven scientific revolution,” he said. “Our invention will help to solve many complex problems in a wide range of areas, including medical, environmental and biosecurity research.”
So how exactly would the device work?
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The MRI technology in the gadget would help identify the chemical composition of individual molecules, while mass spectrometers would measure the masses in a given sample.
As PhD student Michael Barson explains: “For the mass spectrometry, when a molecule attaches to the diamond device, its mass changes, which changes the frequency, and we measure the change in frequency using the defects in the diamond.”
Okay, this device won’t magically open locked doors, but still, it does sound quite cool.
The research is published in Nano Letters.
