Gizmorama - July 24, 2017

Good Morning,

A wearable sensor has been developed that measures body temperature which can help with diagnosing illness.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*- Personalized wearable sensor measures body temperature -*
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a 3D printed sensor worn on the ear that monitors core body temperature.

Body temperature fluctuations can mean a range of health conditions including a fever being the first sign of infection.

However, temperature fluctuations can also mean more subtle health conditions including insomnia, fatigue, depression and metabolic function.

The researchers created the sensor by integrating data processing circuits, a wireless module and an infrared sensor to measure core body temperature via the ear in the 3D printed device.

The device is disk-like and covers the ear with a microphone embedded into it to allow the user to hear while wearing the monitor.

A Bluetooth module transmits temperature readings to a smartphone app for users to access on their phones.

Current wearable sensors can only detect outside temperature readings, not core body temperature readings.

The study, published July 19 in ACS Sensors, adds to the increasing number of health trackers that integrate with smartphone apps to provide a real-time measure of health.



* Quantum mechanical particles travel backwards, study confirms *
A team of particle physicists and mathematicians have confirmed all quantum mechanical particles move backwards -- in the opposite direction of the force acting upon them. The phenomenon is called "backflow."

Until now, scientists had only observed the counterintuitive movement among "free" quantum particles -- particles free from any active forces. In the newest experiments, researchers showed quantum particles move in reverse even when pushed by an active force.

Scientists used advanced mathematical analysis to confirm the presence of backflow. Though the phenomenon is ubiquitous, it is a very weak force and hard to measure. Small or not, understanding the effect is essential to designing technologies that take advantage of quantum mechanics.

"We have shown that backflow can always occur, even if a force is acting on the quantum particle while it travels," Henning Bostelmann, a mathematician at the University of York, said in a news release. "The backflow effect is the result of wave-particle duality and the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, and it is already well understood in an idealised case of force-free motion."

Researchers published their findings this week in the journal Physical Review A.

"As 'free' quantum particles are an idealized, perhaps unrealistic situation, we have shown that backflow still occurs when external forces are present. This means that external forces don't destroy the backflow effect, which is an exciting new discovery," said Daniela Cadamuro, a researcher at the Technical University of Munich. "These new findings allow us to find out the optimal configuration of a quantum particle that exhibits the maximal amount of backflow, which is important for future experimental verification."

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