February 18, 2014

A Blu-ray player detects microorganisms and toxins on discs



In addition to storing films, optical discs can be used to detect microorganisms, toxins, allergens and tumoral biomarkers. Blu-ray technology has allowed researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia to develop a way to find out if a sample contains Salmonella or toxic substances. This simple and cheap analytical system may be applied to clinical diagnosis and environmental monitoring.