In technology right out of the movie Gattaca, Purdue University scientists have developed a method that can identify what a person has been touching: drugs, explosives or poisons, for example.

Desorption electrospray ionization, or Desi, involves spaying a liquid that has been electrically charged on a tiny bit of a fingerprint, such as one on a keyboard, and analysis of the material by mass spectrometry.

If a Desi analyzer can be miniaturized and automated into a surgical tool, a surgeon could also, for example, quickly test body tissues for the presence of molecules associated with cancer.