Researchers 3D print key components for a point-of-care mass spectrometer

The low-cost hardware outperforms state-of-the-art versions and could someday enable an affordable, in-home device for health monitoring

09-Apr-2024 - Mass spectrometry, a technique that can precisely identify the chemical components of a sample, could be used to monitor the health of people who suffer from chronic illnesses. For instance, a mass spectrometer can measure hormone levels in the blood of someone with hypothyroidism. But mass ...

Smart formulation in food technology

Harnessing infrared spectroscopy for consistent and predictable apple puree quality

08-Apr-2024 - Apple puree is a major market player, integral to various products, yet its quality varies with the diversity of apple cultivars and processing conditions. For fruit processors, the ever-increasing variability of raw fruits means that their empirical knowhow may not be sufficient to produce ...

Bacteria beyond Earth?

Signs of life detectable in single ice grains emitted from moons orbiting Saturn and Jupiter

27-Mar-2024 - The ice-encrusted oceans of some of the moons orbiting Saturn and Jupiter are prime candidates in the search for extraterrestrial life. A new lab-based study led by Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Washington, Seattle, shows that individual ice grains ejected from these planetary ...

Nosy chemistry

New portable chemical nose can identify a broad range of chemicals

20-Mar-2024 - A living organism’s nose is essentially a biological molecule detector that sends neurological signals to the brain, which then decodes a particular scent. Human noses, with six million olfactory receptors, can distinguish more than one trillion scents, while some canine noses possess up to 300 ...

AI technique 'decodes' microscope images, overcoming fundamental limit

“We’ve given a proof-of-concept and shown how to use AI to significantly improve AFM images, but this work is only the beginning”

12-Mar-2024 - Atomic force microscopy, or AFM, is a widely used technique that can quantitatively mapmaterial surfaces in three dimensions, but its accuracy is limited by the size of the microscope’sprobe. A new AI technique overcomes this limitation and allows microscopes to resolve material features ...

‘Artificial tongue’ detects and inactivates common mouth bacteria

In the future, bacterial dental diseases could also be diagnosed and treated using this sensor system

29-Feb-2024 - From the fuzzy feeling on your teeth to the unfortunate condition of halitosis, bacteria shape mouth health. When dental illnesses take hold, diagnosis and treatment is necessary, but identifying the microorganisms behind an infection can be a lengthy and expensive process. Now, researchers ...

Detect 'forever chemicals' in under 3 minutes

New lab-based method to detect traces of PFAS from food packaging material, water and soil samples

12-Feb-2024 - PFAS have earned the name “forever chemicals” with good reason — the man-made compounds, which can take thousands of years to degrade and are found in everything from grease-resistant food packaging to water-repellent clothing, have made their way into nearlyhalf the U.S. tap water supply. Now, ...

Lighting up Alzheimer’s-related proteins to allow for earlier disease detection

08-Feb-2024 - Many neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, are difficult to diagnose before symptoms begin to appear. However, disease-related biomarkers such as aggregated proteins called amyloids could provide important insight much earlier, if they can be readily detected. ...

Glowing COVID-19 diagnostic test prototype produces results in one minute

Researchers use a molecule found in crustaceans

24-Jan-2024 - Cold, flu and COVID-19 season brings that now-familiar ritual: swab, wait, look at the result. But what if, instead of taking 15 minutes or more, a test could quickly determine whether you have COVID-19 with a glowing chemical? Now, in ACS Central Science, researchers describe a potential ...

Glow sticks – Not just for parties anymore

University of Houston researcher using popular party favor to detect biothreats for US Navy

12-Jan-2024 - Remember that party where you were swinging glow sticks above your head or wearing them as necklaces? Fun times, right? Science times, too. Turns out those fun party favors are now being used by a University of Houston researcher to identify emerging biothreats for the United States Navy. It’s ...