The nose's sensors consist of microscopic plastic beads coated in fluorescent dye and perched on the ends of optical fibres.

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To solve this problem, the researchers at the Max Planck Institute developed a technique using a fluorescent dye to make the spinal cord transparent, replacing the water that is normally there.

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Just one square inch, the chip contains 2, 056 microvalves that can selectively mix reagents together (in this case to test for the activity of a particular enzyme in a bacterium) in 256 reaction chambers, each one holding less than one-billionth of a liter of fluorescent dye.

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For molecular diagnostic tests Beckman Coulter has developed a nucleic-acid- sample detection instrument that separates fluorescent-dye-labeled DNA fragments for pattern recognition or further identification.

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