Handheld chemical analysis tool

Image from Steve Bowers
A softtech chemicanalyser, with needleprobe attached

Two streams of technological development late in the first Century AT gave rise to the chemicanalyzer. First, medical lab-on-a-chip devices became more powerful and versatile, allowing advanced medical analysis with a handheld device. Second, chemical analysis tools such as nuclear resonance scanning and x-ray dispersive spectroscopy became cheaper and more extensively used.

Techniques of miniaturization such as AT and room-temperature superconductors allowed multiple forms of analytical equipment to be carried into the field in a single unit in backpack or suitcase form, with several pencil-like probes. These were initially used in mineral prospecting, but gradually spread to other fields of endeavor.

In 97 AT these devices were combined to give a portable laboratory capable of deducing the molecular structure of almost any organic or inorganic analyte; be it gas,liquid or solid. By the Technocalypse this had been refined into handheld versions of several different models. The most popular was the size and shape of a paperback book, with a needle-like probe capable of reconfiguring itself for different samples. The face of the chemicanalyzer was a 3D screen that could display the molecular structure and a report on the properties of the substance(s). Another popular version was a wand that could interact via Direct Neural Interface with the user.

Across history numerous other designs have been developed for non-human clades of a diverse range anatomy types. Many modern versions include sensitive Olfactory Arrays to sense chemical properties remotely, using minute amounts of atmosphere-borne materials.

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Development Notes
Text by Tom Mazanec
Initially published on 25 February 2016.