Photonic Breakthrough Allows 'Lab-on-a-Chip' 72
Roland Piquepaille writes "Georgia Tech researchers have shrunk an optical device called wavelength demultiplier (WD) by combining into one crystal three unique properties of photonics crystals. This optical discovery opens the way to sophisticated and cheap bio-sensors mounted on 'lab-on-a-chip' devices -- sensors to run blood tests, detect chemicals in water supplies or for drug testing. Their new WD is less than a millimeter in all dimensions rather than the several centimeters of other currently available WDs. And it should not cost more to produce."
Typo? (Score:2, Informative)
Cost less hopefully?
propagating typos (Score:4, Informative)
Demultiplexer not demultiplier (Score:5, Informative)
Very little that's new here (Score:3, Informative)
These guys have great PR but, like most scientific advances, the improvement is really only a tiny step.
Re:"Allows"? it's already possible (Score:2, Informative)
The Bad Thing is confusing the explanation in the PR with the real research or discovery, or assuming that it's actually important because the school PR office thought it sounded neat. Which is how Roland Piquepaille wound up propagating the PR writer's mistake on the terminology ("demultiplier").
Re:What is it about the "news" from Roland Piquepa (Score:2, Informative)