Monitoring gas discharges from factories often requires a host of detectors. Now researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have built a microchip that houses three different gas sensors. One acts like a microscopic silicon springboard, whose vibrations change when it adsorbs molecules of certain gases. Another has a polymer film that absorbs polarised molecules such as alcoholsaffecting its ability to store charge. A third sensor measures the temperature change due to molecules evaporating or condensing on the chip's surface (
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