A study recently published in the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectometry described a system for detecting the smells that are given off by the skin. These are the same smells that dogs use to identify their owners and perhaps even to decide if that new person with his hand out is a friend or a foe.

This electronic nose technique involves ionizing the smells with a cloud of electrically-charged drops and analyzing them using mass spectometry.

Where this technology takes us, I don’t know. We’ve all heard of dogs who can sniff out melanoma. Maybe this device will be able to detect melanoma before it becomes noticeable. Imagine going to your dermatologist not for a skin exam but a good skin sniffing.

social poster