[osmansec]

At first I was kind of skeptical because detecting pH has been done for decades (and quite easily) - but her methodology for keeping the dye on the suture was really smart just in general. One thing that would make this really viable is if she could make the color change a bit more extreme. Personally red and dark purple are really hard to tell apart for some people, especially for detecting something as a surgical infectionl.

[mattkrause]

Cotton is not a great suture material: low tensile strength when wet and it’ll absorb/wick bodily fluids, which sets the scene for an infection.

Catgut and silk were traditionally used, but there are tons of synthetic ones too.

[mberning]

I agree. Very cool. Having a more dramatic color change would be a must to take it to market and reduce/eliminate false positives. I bet there are specialized chemists that they could work with on a second iteration.

[ta988]

Especially with blood around in case the suture leaks or there is a bubble of blood...