On January 27, 2022, Aaron Wagner described the latest research from Penn State’s Department of Biobehavioral Health around using wearable technology to determine a person’s level of intoxication from alcoholic drinks. Michael Russell and other researchers found that level of intoxication can depend on several factors including the number of drinks, alcoholic content, the weight of the person and what they had eaten recently. Traditional breathalyzers can provide an accurate picture of the blood alcohol level at specific instants, such as at a traffic stop. However, they have certain limitations. Primarily, they require “active cooperation” and can be “intrusive”. Wearable or transdermal sensors measure the alcohol level in “imperceptible amounts of sweat”. This has the benefit of being less intrusive for the person drinking, and can provide a host of information that traditional techniques can’t. This would include “how much a person drank, how quickly they drank, and how long alcohol remained in their system”. These insights could be vital to preventing “negative consequences” such as automobile accidents, hangovers and sexual assault.