Sweet diagnostics and smartphone spiders

Abstract

Conductive candy Some people don’t like Tootsie Roll candy, Newscripts has learned. Regardless of the validity of that opinion, researchers have come up with an alternate use for the little chocolate logs: shaping them into electrodes that diagnose kidney disease or track ovulation ( ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c11306 ). Beelee Chua of Korea University has worked for years developing medical diagnostic devices. He says he noticed that single-use tests—which help ensure equipment remains sterile between uses—are both expensive and generate a lot of waste. So Chua and his former student Donghyun Lee, now of Pusan National University, have looked for ways to repurpose other materials to potentially reduce the cost and waste of diagnostics. They previously described using gummy bears to measure bite force ( Sens. Actuators, A 2019, DOI: 10.1016/j.sna.2019.03.013 ). Now they’ve shown that Tootsie Roll candies molded with a grid pattern can trap saliva