Smartphone Analyzer Alerts User To Allergens

Sitting down to eat a meal you didn't prepare yourself can be risky when you have a food allergy, so how are you supposed to know if it's safe to eat?

UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science may have come up with a solution in the form of an analyzer which connects to your smartphone and detects any possible allergens in your food.

Here's more:

...the two-ounce smartphone accessory relies on a test tube-based allergen test called a colorimetric assay.

Using the iTube to detect the presence of nuts, eggs, gluten, or other allergens first requires a sample to be ground up and mixed with water and an extraction solvent for a few minutes, followed by a series of other chemicals in a step-by-step process. The resulting mixture is then visually analyzed by a custom app using the smartphone's camera which can actually determine the concentration of the allergen in the food, not just whether or not it's present.

All-in-all the test takes about 20 minutes to complete with the current version of the hardware. And while its performance will certainly be improved over time, if you have dangerous food allergies that's not a terribly long time to wait if it guarantees you won't suffer a terrible reaction.

Link  --via Gizmodo


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I don't think they cross bred it other plants. They found clovers with mutations and cross bred it with other clovers with extra leaves.

If I remember biology, extra leaves in a clover is a recessive trait. Dominant traits such as normal leaves well affect the plant more than the extra leaves trait. If you breed two plants with extra leaves, the trait stays with the offspring so it also has extra leaves. Keep doing this, and eventually you will get a plant with a lot of leaves.
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"Last month, a family member claimed to have found a 27-leaf clover, but the discovery was not confirmed."

Not confirmed because that family member ate the 27-leaf clover.
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I found an 8-leaf, 2 7-leaf, 3 6-leaf, a few 5-leaf, and about 10 4-leaf clovers today! All growing in the same area.
That's hw I found this page; I was checking the web to see if I had a world record on my hands. Sadly not. By a LONG way!
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yo whs up!! (ha ha) way to go farmer i just found 8 and i want luck and i want it now! but keep mutinatin' those clovers i might visit there so i can have some luck!:-)
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My sister has been finding 4-leafed clovers in my yard for the last two summers. (She just seems to look down and there they are, but I had to *hunt* to find one myself. >_<) The other day she found a 5-leafed one. It is being pressed for posterity. :)
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