New Advances in Artificial Wine Tasting
Science is trying to duplicate the job of the human nose and tongue. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have apparently used Nano technology to do this and have published their findings in a recent issue of Nano Letters, a journal published by the American Chemical Society. The process uses “Nano-sized carbon tubes coated with strands of DNA” to analyze trace amount of molecules ( 1 part per million) in a liquid or the air. FTA:
“What we have here is a hybrid of two molecules that are extremely sensitive to outside signals: single stranded DNA, which serves as the ‘detector,’ and a carbon nanotube, which functions as ‘transmitter,’” said A. T. Charlie Johnson, associate professor in Penn’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. “Put the two together and they become an extremely versatile type of sensor, capable of finding tiny amounts of a specific molecule.”
This type of technology could easily scale into the wine industry, comparing trace chemicals from one wine to another, providing a non-biased tasting profile of both smell and taste.
