I was offline with my family last week, walking and drinking ale in Derbyshire, so I’m a bit late in alerting you to my latest news stories on SpectroscopyNOW, they went live in my absence. So here’s the catchup:
Tyson’s toxic technique – The first accurate test for arsenic compounds in contaminated soil has been developed by US chemists. Their atomic emission approach to the problem could provide improved environmental and health assessments of contaminated sites.
Cosmic X-rays – Dutch have astronomers have, for the first time, used X-ray spectroscopy to reveal the long-sought signatures of dust in the interstellar medium, the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS).
ET’s aminos – One of biology’s unanswered questions involves the evolution of the genetic code and the fact it uses just 20 natural amino acids as its building blocks for making proteins. A mathematical analysis of biochemistry by researchers in Canada suggests a possible answer that could have profound implications for our search for life on other planets.
Teasing with a stripline – A high-resolution NMR flow probe for microfluidic systems based on a new type of stripline detector chip has been developed by researchers in The Netherlands. The tool could be useful in direct monitoring of chemical reactions performed in so-called lab-on-a-chip devices.