[Red Badger]

Before anyone complains about the spelling, it's British......

[Eric in the Ozarks]

They have chili in the UK ?

[dmz]

Talk about taking all the fun out of eating spicy foods ...

[Abathar]

All I know is whatever the peppers are put in it will be way overcooked and mushy.

[r9etb]

In Compton’s method, the capsaicinoids are adsorbed onto multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) electrodes. The team measures the current change as the capsaicinoids are oxidised by an electrochemical reaction, and this reading can be translated into Scoville units. The technique is called adsorptive stripping voltammetry (ASV), and is a relatively simple electrochemical method.

This could be adapted for numerous other "chemical level" tests.

[Interesting Times]

Ping.

[Jonah Hex]

A measurement scale already exists for measuring chili hotness:

1. Spicy
2. Slight burn, eyes water
3. What the hell is this stuff?! You could remove dried paint from your driveway.
4. Keep this out of the reach of children. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to taste besides pain.
5. Call the EPA, I've located a uranium spill. My nose feels like I have been snorting Drano.
6. I felt something scraping across my tongue, but was unable to taste it. Is it possible to burn out taste buds?
7. My ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off my forehead, and I can no longer focus my eyes.
8. My intestines are now a straight pipe filled with gaseous, sulfuring flames.
9. You could put a grenade in my mouth, pull the pin, and I wouldn't feel a thing.
10. Oh my g....

[Wonder Warthog]

Methinks this will have the same problem that most other electrochemical techniques do----lack of specificity.

HPLC is still the method of choice, IMHO.

[ZX12R]

Wow...there just isn’t much you can’t do with nanotubes these days.