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Most people don’t realize just how far technology has come in giving the common people capabilities that would have been exclusive to the government’s military or science branches in the past. Smartphones are incredibly underappreciated examples of this and with the help of an attachment that scientists are developing, it might soon be possible to detect contaminants in the water on the devices people use to play Candy Crush.
The attachment is being made by University of Leiden astronomers who are attempting to adapt the same technology that is used to look at distant planets and scan them for the presence of oxygen. In the press release talking about the new attachment that’s being called MONOCLE, it’s noted that this project was actually the result of a collaboration of scientists from multiple nations.
“The user-friendly measuring instrument - a device you can attach to your mobile - may also be available to Dutch citizen scientists in a couple of years' time; this is what astronomer Frans Snik and Professor of Ecotoxicology Martina Vijver are hoping for. The device will be launched in other countries first. In the recently launched Horizon 2020 research programme, MONOCLE, researchers and residents will measure the quality of the water in the Baloton Lake in Hungary, Loch Leven in Scotland, Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, the Donau delta in Roemania and the lake area near to Stockholm in Sweden,” the press release reads.
As Futurism notes, this device is basically intended to make it ludicrously easy to analyze the pollution present in water. Just to provide context, the conventional method of getting the same results is to take samples from bodies of water and do a little bit of chemical wizardry to find just the presence of contaminants.
For really specific results, the samples would need to be sent to a laboratory where they will be analyzed for hours or days on end. In comparison, simply pointing the attachment at a body of water and getting accurate readings is almost comically easy. It’s the kind of technological convenience that should make people’s heads explode in wonder.
