Question Your World: What’s the New Noninvasive Way of Studying the Body?
Science is built on a lot of inspiration. Real life involves a lot of perspiration. When you put the two together, you have this week’s awesome science news update! As technology advances, we find easier and easier ways to monitor our health. The needle in the skin approach is still necessary for a lot of biometric measurements, but that could change, thanks to some clever thinking and a new invention. What's the new noninvasive way of studying the body?
To properly monitor many functions in the human body, invasive techniques are often required. However, some new ideas are making a few health measurements possible without the need for needles or other invasive techniques. A team of researchers just developed a new way to measure sweat rate and sweat composition using a cutting edge new printable technology. A newly design printable sensor has given scientists some insight into some fascinating information about what our sweat can tell us.
First of all, the printable aspect is great because it allows for many of these to be created at a much lower cost than has been previously available. Imagine a small sticky plastic square about an inch or so wide with sensors printed on it, well that’s basically what this is. These printed sensors can continually analyze sweat on a person, for example, when they’re exercising or sick.
Image credit: Getty Images
This sensor would be able to calculate the sweat rate and give an indication of overall liquid loss from the body, helping the individual know more in real time. Maybe then they could take preventative action, like chugging some water before a dehydration-headache sets in! Using this technology, scientists would also be able to study the composition of the sweat, such as the electrolytes and metabolites. Our sweat includes information on our body’s electrolytes, such as potassium and sodium. These sensors can also gauge levels of metabolites like glucose.
The hope here is that sensors like these could one day give real-time biometrics to people without the need for invasive methods. Understanding our bodily functions is an important part of staying healthy. For those worried about needles and invasive medical processes, this new invention should make those folks not sweat it as much!