Scientists Hack Mobile Phone to Analyse Blood, Detect Disease, Help Developing Nations

A new MacGyver-esque mobile phone hack could bring cheap, on-the-spot disease detection to even the most remote villages on the planet. Using only an LED, plastic light filter and some wires, scientists at UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute have modded a mobile phone into a portable blood tester capable of monitoring HIV, malaria, leukemia and detecting diseases. Blood tests today require either refrigerator-sized machines that cost tens of thousands of dollars or a trained technician who manually identifies and counts cells under a microscope. These systems are slow, expensive and require dedicated labs to function. And soon they could be a thing of the past