Astronomy Tool Can Now Detect COVID in Breath

Laser-based optical frequency combs, originally developed to time atomic clocks, can also perform fast, noninvasive tests for COVID—and potentially other diseases as well
Astronomers and physicists have long used a laser-based sensor called an “optical frequency comb” to study the material makeup of the cosmos and to make timekeeping more accurate. But the COVID pandemic has pushed this versatile tool from the world of space and physics into health care.
By Starre Vartan via Scientific American