Short Science, March 23, 2014

Toshiba has unveiled a breathalyser which it says can detect several diseases just 30 seconds after users blow into the machine. The device has a nozzle in which users blow several times. It then analyses the puffs for traces of several gases which can signal the presence of several health problems including diabetes, stomach ailments and even the ordinary hangover. "A breath exhaled into the machine is irradiated with an infrared laser, and then trace gases are detected" the company said in a statement. The gases include acetaldehyde, methane and acetone, all of which can point to the presence of various health problems. Toshiba said it would expand the number of gases that its machine can detect, with an eye to starting commercial production next year. AFP

Nasa scientists have detected the veil of dust kicked up by tiny meteoroid impacts on the moon. Many spacecraft had tried to detect sunlight reflected from the dust and failed. So, instead, the scientists of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) spacecraft used an onboard instrument that detects micrometre-size dust particles when they hit the instrument at several thousand km/h and vaporise. Orbiting the moon as low as a few tens of kilometres above the surface, Ladee detected a dust impact every minute or two on average except when a meteoroid shower hitting the moon kicked up many more times the debris. Researchers should be able to use these observations to see if debris blown off Pluto's moons will present a hazard to the New Horizons spacecraft when it flies by the ice dwarf planet next year. Washington Post