Month: April 2006

Vestigial Virgins

Ivan Pedrosa and colleagues at Harvard have demonstrated how MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) can help rule out a diagnosis of acute appendicitis during pregnancy when ultrasound results are inconclusive.

Appendicitis during pregnancy can lead to numerous complications, not least because of the need for emergency surgery. Ultrasound has been used to reveal an inflamed appendix, but it is not always conclusive, especially in the late stages of pregnancy.

The full story now in the MRI section of SpectroscopyNOW.com

Pinning Down Alzheimer Clue

US researchers have used a powerful spectroscopic technique to demonstrate that an enzyme previously shown to protect brain cells from the characteristic fibrous tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease also helps inhibit formation of the amyloid peptide plaques (APPs) seen in this disease. The team examined the relationship between APPs and the enzyme prolyl isomerase, Pin1.

The full story is now available on the spectroscopy site – SpectroscopyNOW.com

You can access my other spectroscopy news stories via this Sciencebase page.

Broadband Comb-over

To record a useful spectrum in a reasonable time, the spectroscopist must juggle bandwidth, resolution, sensitivity, and acquisition times.

In a technique such as cavity-ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS), high detection limits are possible but this is offset by a narrowing of the range of frequencies that can be followed quickly. However, US researchers have now developed a broadband version of this technique that neatly combs over the issue of frequency limitations and can now achieve high sensitivity, broad spectral bandwidth, high resolution, and fast acquisition times simultaneously. The team reports in the journal Science a proof of principle experiment in recording CRDS spectra from the visible to near-infrared for species such as acetylene, dioxygen, water, ammonia and argon.

You can read about this latest research in the first April issue of SpectroscopyNOW. You can find more of my news reports for the spectroscopy site here.

LED printout

In the latest issue of SpectroscopyNOW, I discuss how there are numerous redox-active compounds that emit light under electrical stimulation. Such materials are commonly organometallic complexes containing a transition metal and have been developed for labelling biomolecules for use in sensors. Related compounds are also being investigated for use in luminescent displays. Now, researchers in The Netherlands have used inkjet technology to “print” thin films of such materials to make new LED devices for display and backlighting applications.

This and more in the spectroscopy news round-up. A list of my news reports for the spectroscopy site can be found here.

April Theory

A week doesn’t go by without my receiving an email from someone with a new theory that promises to overturn the whole of physics and chemistry. This week’s arrived with just a couple of days to go before April Fool’s Day.

You can check out the website along with movies illustrating the theory here. Please let me know if you get the joke! I’m not sure what those atoms are doing in that movie of two hydrogens colliding to be honest, what’s making them change direction, for instance?

Anyway, the site is here http://phasedparticle.com and I’ve reproduced the basic tenets of the new theory in case anyone can provide some insight:

1. Light is made up of both waves and particles.

2. Protons and electrons are both complete magnets having both a North and South Pole.

3. Heat is an energy field emanating from protons.