This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Karen Hopkins.

Need a quick breath check before your big meeting or your big date?

Well, scientists from South Korea may be able to help.

They've engineered a portable device that detects even the tiniest trace of hydrogen sulfide.

The stuff that smells like rotten eggs, and is one of the primary offenders in oral obnoxiousness.

Their work appears in the journal Analytical chemistry.

Bad breath, aka halitosis, can be more than a social inconvenience.

A skunky mouth also may point to some serious underlying medical or dental issues.

Early diagnosis is very significant to prolong your healthy life.

Junicha of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

He says that most of the instruments used for diagnostics are found in clinics or hospitals, which may be tough to get to.

And the electronic sensors that are currently used to sniff out various gases

require a power source and precise calibration.

Not easy when you're out and about.

So we came up with a strategy to develop color metric gas sensors,

which changes color when detecting biomarker gases.

Think of it as a litmus test for your exhalation.

To build their sensor, the researchers took lead acetate,

a chemical used in some hair dye products

that turns brown when exposed to hydrogen sulfide. And they embedded it in a three-dimensional

nanofiber web, so the dye would spread out across a large surface area. That distribution

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