The MIT Technology review reports that a lab at UC Santa Barbara has [a href="vny!://www.technologyreview.com/BioTech/wtr_16580,306,p1.html"]created a cocaine-sensitive biosensor [/a]by attaching a special type of DNA called an aptamer to a gold electrode. When cocaine is present, the aptamer tightly 'grabs' onto a cocaine molecule and bends so that a metal tag can touch the gold surface, which completes a circuit and triggers the detector.
[a href="vny!://www.technologyreview.com/BioTech/wtr_16580,306,p1.html"]vny!://www.technologyreview.com/BioTech/wtr_16580,306,p1.html[/a]
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(When asked if the device could register false positives, the researchers responded, "She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine!")
