Sulfurous acid H2SO3 - and it does exist

World's first proof under atmospheric conditions calls textbook opinion into question

05-Sep-2024 - Once again, the atmosphere amazes us with its diverse chemical processes. For the first time, researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in Leipzig have demonstrated the existence of sulfurous acid (H2SO3) under atmospheric conditions in the gas phase. The results ...

Strawberries under the high-tech magnifying glass

05-Jul-2024 - Sweet notes and healthy ingredients make strawberries one of the most popular fruits worldwide. The complex biochemical compounds that determine the taste and nutritional value of a strawberry - so-called biomarkers - can only be determined in detail by experts using modern analyses. Now, a team ...

Four-legged, dog-like robot ‘sniffs’ hazardous gases in inaccessible environments

Portable mass spectrometry for on-site detection of hazardous volatile organic compounds via robotic extractive sampling

12-Jun-2024 - Nightmare material or truly man’s best friend? A team of researchers equipped a dog-like quadruped robot with a mechanized arm that takes air samples from potentially treacherous situations, such as an abandoned building or fire. The robot dog walks samples to a person who screens them for ...

Breakthrough technology to rapidly identify unknown molecules at scale

Start-up Isospec Analytics raises $1.9m

18-Apr-2024 - When developing new drugs, nutritional products, or pesticides, it’s critical that unknown molecules are identified correctly. But accurate identification is a lengthy process and all too often unsuccessful, leading to failed regulatory processes, or worse, consumer health being put in danger. ...

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 ...

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, ...

Researchers 3D print components for a portable mass spectrometer

Lightweight and inexpensive, miniaturized mass filters are a key step toward portable mass spectrometers that could identify unknown chemicals in remote settings

08-Jan-2024 - Mass spectrometers, devices that identify chemical substances, are widely used in applications like crime scene analysis, toxicology testing, and geological surveying. But these machines are bulky, expensive, and easy to damage, which limits where they can be effectively deployed. Using additive ...

A sugar analysis could reveal different types of cancer

In the future, a little saliva may be enough to detect an incipient cancer

15-Dec-2023 - Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have developed an effective way to interpret the changes in sugar molecules that occur in cancer cells. Glycans are a type of sugar molecule structures that is linked to the proteins in our cells. The structure of the glycan determines the function of ...

Spacetek Technology announces the successful closing of its Seed Financing Round

Time-of-flight mass spectrometers (TOF-MS) inspired by space technology

22-Nov-2023 - Spacetek Technology AG has successfully completed its seed financing round in October 2023. Led by Swisscom Ventures, 5.8 million CHF in funding has been secured from a group of financial investors. The Spectrum Moonshot Fund also joined as a co-investor along with the existing ...

Coronavirus: Researchers develop new rapid and reliable detection method

22-Aug-2023 - Commercially available mass spectrometers can reliably detect the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In the journal "Clinical proteomics" researchers from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) present a new method which employs equipment that is already being used in hospitals and laboratories ...