The tricorders can be a reality soon

posted on January 24th, 2012, 2:29 pm

As always Star Trek is an inspiration to science. New T-ray technology could help enable Star Trek-style “tricorders”. That's why I love Star Trek.

posted on January 24th, 2012, 4:21 pm

posted on January 24th, 2012, 4:24 pm

Neat stuff 

posted on January 24th, 2012, 4:29 pm

"...every molecule having its own signature in the THz range..."
Sounds extremely promising.

posted on January 24th, 2012, 6:20 pm

Professional pride aside working in a medical laboratory i do not think a single apparatus can replace the technical expertise needed for a complete medical diagnosis.

Even if a hand held apparatus can be developed to distinguish between hundreds, no thousands of individual substances and their different conformations in the human body there remains the fact that cellular bodies and their interaction can never be identified in this manner.

One without the other gives an incomplete picture and can potentially be very dangerous indeed.

It's a nice development, but not worth the hype.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 12:02 am

It's not something that will replace a true medical examination, but it could potentially aid in things like field diagnoses.

posted on January 25th, 2012, 11:30 pm

That tricorder contest is highly unreasonable, but it is possible that one day software could automate most of the diagnosing process when given the information.