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The Discovery FilesCounterfix
A new, simple technique developed by engineers from the University of California, Riverside, can detect fake drugs by using a video recorded as a sample undergoes a disturbance. The researchers report they have used an algorithm-based technology, called "chronoprinting," which requires only a few relatively inexpensive pieces of equipment and free software to accurately distinguish pure from inferior food and medicines. The World Health Organization says that about 10 percent of all medicines in low- and middle-income countries are counterfeit, and food fraud is a global problem that costs consumers and industry billions of dollars per year.
Credit: National Science Foundation/Karson Productions
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