Alchemical Start to the Year

The Alchemist took a seasonable tipple over the holiday period but discovered that he needn’t have splashed out on all that expensive wine thanks to the field effect. He also discovers that all those spent coffee grounds he produces could be harvested to make biodiesel and hears of plans to rejuvenate the Baltic Sea with a giant fish-tank oxygenator. Drug users could soon be spotted by their glowing fingerprints, thanks to the latest development in forensic chemistry while a detector for melamine could help prevent future food scandals where this compound has been used illicitly to artificially inflate protein readings on baby milk and pet food. Finally, this week’s award could help boost European research in nanomedicine.

You can read all the headlines and straplines in the current issue of The Alchemist on ChemWeb.com