Tech Talk: Super bacteria-killing flashlight could save lives in disasters

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A handheld flashlight that can sterilize wounds in disaster zones by shooting plasma? This might sound like something found in a comic book, but it’s real. We recently read about it on TIME Magazine’s website.

The flashlight was tested by researchers from China and Australia. They found that when applied to wounds, the plasma from the flashlight would produce reactive and long-living particles that interact with damaged cells and kill them. An extra bonus: the plasma that the flashlight produces would be at room-temperature, which wouldn’t cause any further damage to the skin.

In addition, the flashlight is amazingly portable, battery-powered and will cost $100 each. The researchers hope the flashlight will help those responding in the field to sterilize wounds quicker and blast away bacteria with greater ease.

To read more about this new invention, check out the results of the study that were published online in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics.

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