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Testing time

Testing time several diagnostic dilemmas can be resolved in a matter of minutes by means of an exquisitely sensitive testing device developed by Australian researchers. Bruce Cornell and his team at the Cooperative Research Centre for Molecular Engineering and Technology at the University of Sidney have come up with Biosensor, a prototype of the product that would be mainly used in medical diagnostics, a market worth about us $1 billion. Biosensor can also be used for testing water quality and food safety. Toxins produced by food-spoiling bacteria can be easily detected ( The Economist , Vol 343, No 8021).

The device works by using an artificial cell membrane that mimics the body's natural recognition mechanism. The scientists created the artificial membrane by chemically tethering a thin layer of organic fat-like molecules called lipids, to a plastic sheet. Spread out within the lipid layer are thousands of tiny pipes one nanometre wide. Brownian movement

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