Finding pennies on the ground is mostly useless today. Find a dollar and you’ve got yourself a can of soda or candy bar. However, George Whitesides, a Harvard professor of chemistry has made something that it cheap and could change the future of medicine, all for a penny. He has created a paper ‘chip’ that could test people for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.
Unfortunately, the government will find a way to raise the cost, tax the sick and make money. If this ‘chip’ is effective in detecting disease, medicine can simplify testing in other areas.
The tester has a tree shaped detector that changes color. The tester could also tell how severe the patients’ disease is. Imagine testing for STDs or other diseases. It would be as simple as taking a blood sugar test for diabetes. Stab the finger, take a drop of blood and wait for the results. It’s simple, theoretically effective and can cost a penny to make.
This could lead to an entire new division in healthcare. The millions of dollars spent for medical testing could be used to cure the sick and heal the wounded. Without too much inflation, the government could use its savings to fix our national debt. The testing requires no power, which could pull hundreds of electricity sucking machines from hospitals.
In poverty stricken areas, doctors could walk around with hundreds of these ‘chips’ to test entire towns and villages. It could save thousands of people around the world. In Africa, America and across the globe, there is a need for cheap healthcare. Cheap testing would be the start.
If Whitesides played it right, he could hold the patent and sell it for a reasonable price. He could force medicine to sell it and distribute it for pocket change.
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