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Chemist refining dipstick to test for caffeine in coffee
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jack Ladenson is one of thousands of Americans bothered by caffeine. The older he gets, he said, the more he switches to decaf coffee.
However, he never trusts what he’s getting in coffee bars or restaurants. So Ladenson, a chemist, is working on a dipstick that would measure caffeine levels on the spot.
He envisions something similar to a home-pregnancy strip.
"We hope to configure a test that could be used by anybody," said Ladenson, who is leading a group of scientists at Washington University in the effort.
One of the challenges is that there is no test that can
measure caffeine in a hot beverage. But the scientists have found a
solution to that problem — immune-system proteins called antibodies
from camels and llamas.