UK Researchers develop handheld Laser based fake Drug Detector
Fake drugs are not easy to detect as the packaging gets in the way.
Such fake drugs are flooding markets especially of the developing countries of Asia and Africa and killing hundreds of people annually.
But now UK based researchers named Pavel Matousek and Charlotte Eliasson have developed a new lased based device that can detect counterfeit drugs even through the packaging material.
The device makes use of 'Raman Spectroscopy' to detect the materials by measuring the range of radiation emitted by the molecules when the drug is subjected to laser light.
Each chemical in the drug respond differently to the lasers and emit infrared radiations of different frequencies. These frequencies are like fingerprints of the chemical.
These emitted radiations are then captured by the device and thus it gets the complete chemical composition of the drug, which in turn tells that the drug is original or fake.
Current handheld detectors cost somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 and can be easily modified to work with this new method.
Via: engadget
