Found this on reddit this morning:
Self-cleaning sensors see the light | Chemistry World
Luigi Falciola and his team have developed, through application of a little surface chemistry and electronics a self-cleaning sensor for dopamine.
This will probably wind up being quite a service to mankind as it will be of use to the entire Parkinson's research community and other medical professionals as well.
I know that learning electronics can be very frustrating, and it can even be, at times, rather onerous even for the expert practitioner. I would just like to encourage everyone to keep hackin'. It took me five-and-a-half years to graduate HS. I have about a semester of college. I am strongly considering going back to college at 55 in order to, one day, participate in projects like this. Stay in school if you can.
There is a soviet tube data book around display tubes that has a rather chilling preface. The author states that the technology needed to run society had been developed by the twenties, using needle indicators. He refers to a propaganda program joined in by both the Sovs and the Yanks that he called 'blinking the lights.' The purpose of this was simple. The European Civil War (world wars I and II) were a disaster of so great of a magnitude that it de-legitimized the large central governments. The idea of this campaign was to get people from thinking 'That war sucked, my uncle died in it.' to 'That war sucked, my uncle died in it -- but we did get all of this great technology out of it!" The author states that this tech was developed actually prior, during the depression and before, but was suppressed from the consumer market. I know that the US ordered the cessation of TV development during the thirties.*
To quote the late, very great Michael Jackson, the lie has become the true. Genuine human utility has ensued from this pursuit in spite of the enormous cynicism that seems to pervade the minds of those at the top of our social pyramid. Pardon my prolixity. Despite of which, my message is simple. Sometimes, we think of this pursuit as a little thing we do to entertain ourselves, but I sometimes suspect more is going on. After I type this I am going to send my grandson his first collection of electrical parts. Little lights, buzzers, knife switches, rheostats, sockets. By the grace of god, he will outlive me. I will not know the ultimate conclusion of this effort, it could of course just dissipate. Oddly, this project gives me a frisson of delight! Due to its uncertainty. My message is: Feel free to work a little harder, a little smarter, SVP. If you are as diligent and determined and lucky as our dear Luigi et al, you may get to make a major contribution to humanity. As Tom Lehrer tells us: "A duck could be somebody's mother!" One cannot even speculate about the possible achievements to come from the 'kids' we help today!
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*I only have the source for this in Russian, I've translated it for myself, but I am not confident of my ability to formally translate. If I can track down my sister, I will have her translate it. She speaks Russian, and French and Italian. Apple polisher. Perhaps she would be more willing to talk to me if I didn't state things like 'now she can bore fluently in four languages!' I come from a manically competitive family. I digress. . .