The device can separate and sort viruses and bacteria in the air for further analysis
Shutterstock / Corona Borealis Studio
A magnetic-levitation device can sort viruses and bacteria that naturally float in the air, making them ready for further analysis.
A cubic metre of indoor air can contain hundreds of thousands of bacteria and viruses, but conventional devices for analysing which may be harmful can often take a long time or are not sensitive enough to pick up on particularly small viruses. Sepideh Pakpour at the University of British Columbia in Canada and her collaborators …