Sensors articles from across Nature Portfolio

Inexpensive air quality monitors may open up pollution monitoring to the wider public. What can the physics of measurement science tell us about how devices need to perform, and how can standardization help?

Efficiency of Raman measurements is increased by nearly four orders of magnitude with the help of sub-wavelength plasmonic gap waveguides.

Quantum sensing that uses electron spins in diamond can perform precise magnetic field measurements but does not work well at high magnetic fields. An alternative approach involving the spins of carbon-13 nuclei can operate in the high-field regime.

In 2017 Professor Frances S. Ligler was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for her inventions in portable optical biosensors. Professor Ligler now talks to Nature Chemistry about the challenge of developing new sensor designs into reliable products, and some of the pitfalls to avoid in the development process.

Ethylene is a plant hormone that has proved difficult to measure. A new catalytic chemiresistor senses ethylene in the parts per billion regime and can monitor plant senescence.

The tumour microenvironment has a specific enzymatic fingerprint, which provides opportunities for cancer therapy. Now, two studies show how this unique chemical environment can be used to produce reporter molecules or nanoclusters within the tumour that can subsequently be identified in urine or breath, enabling cancer detection and monitoring.