Even so, the students given the marked chips ate 20 and 24 chips on average (for the seven-chip and 14-chip tubes, respectively), compared with 45 chips in the control group.

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These, he says, are 1, 500 times better than existing sensors at detecting hydrogen. (The gas combines with the tubes, changing their electrical properties.) Hydrogen detection is used to help control certain processes in industrial food production, for tweaking fuel combustion in car engines, and in monitoring certain bacterial infections.

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In that study, the students whose tubes had markers after every 5 chips ate 14 chips, and those given tubes with markers every 10 chips ate 16 chips compared with 35 chips in the control group.

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