'Electronic nose' built with sustainably sourced microbial nanowires could revolutionize health monitoring

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced the invention of a nanowire, 10,000 times thinner than a human hair, which can be cheaply grown by common bacteria and can be tuned to "smell" a vast array of chemical tracers—including those given off by people afflicted with different medical conditions, such as asthma and kidney disease.