Environmental monitoring with mobile apps and miniaturised chemistry labs
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Professor Mark Lorch is leading a research team developing tools to provide citizen scientists with the means to monitor pollution in their local waterways.
The team has created paper analytical devices (PADs), that act like ‘litmus paper’ for pollutants, changing colour as they react with the compounds in the water. Accompanying the PADs is a mobile app that allows volunteers to records their results and returns them to the researchers.
This combination of mobile tech and chemistry has empowered volunteers from across the country, who are now providing regular updates on the quality of rivers, canals, wetlands and lakes near them