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Sweatin' the details.

I'm Bob Karson with the Discovery Files, from the National Science Foundation.

(Sound effect: 1800s music) (Sound effect: ticking) You know what's odd? That long ago when timepieces could first be worn on a wrist, they called them a "watch." Why? Nobody watches a watch, and watches keep time but don't watch anything. Ironically, today the word 'watch' makes more sense, because the device on our wrists does watch things. Like (Sound effect: heartbeat) heartrate, (Sound effect: treadmill) steps, even blood pressure. As smart as our smartwatches are, they still can't monitor your body's chemistry.

"Not on our watch!", say researchers at UCLA. The team has developed a way to interface a smartwatch to track specific chemical biomarkers in sweat -- like amount of glucose or lactates.

It's done using a two-sided film that's adhered to the skin underneath the body of a smartwatch -- for now, a custom-built one. The side closest to the skin detects tiny amounts of metabolites and nutrients in droplets of sweat (Sound effect: drip!). The side closest to the watch converts the chemical signals to electrical ones (Sound effect: tiny cartoon arc) and through the app the team developed, you get real-time numbers. The sticky film worked when tested at different activity levels, from couch potato (Sound effect: remote changing channels) to (Sound effect: boxing workout) boxers doing a full workout.

The technology to turn a smartwatch into a health monitor opens up a whole range of possibilities. In the near future if someone says, "How are you doing?”, I'll be like, "let me check my watch."

"The discovery files" covers projects funded by the government's National Science Foundation. Federally sponsored research -- brought to you, by you! Learn more at nsf.gov or on our podcast.

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