Soon, Star Trek-style gadget to detect cancer

London, December 14 (ANI): Scientists are coming up with a new Star Trek-style gadget to detect cancers and other diseases.

A portable biomarker detector being developed by a team at Yale University will be able to identify signs of illness from a sample of blood within 20 minutes.

According to the researchers, the device will come in a size of a paperback book and equipped with a nanosensor so accurate that it can pick up a grain of salt in a swimming pool.

"Doctors could have these small, portable devices in their offices and get nearly instant readings," the Telegraph quoted Dr Tarek Fahmy, a biomedical engineer at Yale University, as saying.

He added: "They could also carry them into the field and test patients on site."

Professor Mark Reed, co-author, added: "Nanosensors have been around for the past decade, but they only worked in controlled, laboratory settings.

"This is the first time we've been able to use them with whole blood, which is a complicated solution containing proteins and ions and other things that affect detection."

Seemingly, the device will be similar to Dr McCoy's tricorder in Star Trek, which is used to scan living or nonliving matter to determine its molecular make-up. (ANI)