Researchers’ new wearable detects dangerous chemicals

When you’re working in a lab creating herbicides, insecticides and nerve agents you’ve got to work with some extremely dangerous chemical compounds, specifically one called organophosphates.

These should never come into direct contact with humans, and so researchers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a new flexible glove wearable that can detect these dangerous organophosphates on objects.

Each finger is given a different function: the thumb detects nerve agents, the index finger detects enzymes and the other fingers can be set to do other kinds of electrochemical biosensing.