Smoking cadmium and benchtop X-rays

Latest science news including this week’s round up from my SpectroscopyNOW column:

  • Smoking out cadmium problem – A statistical analysis of spectroscopic data is helping scientists home in on the problem of decreased fruit and vegetable consumption being associated with an elevated concentration of cadmium in the blood of male smokers.
  • Short, sharp outburst – A new approach to generating ultra-short, high-density electron pulses for the production of advanced X-ray sources has been developed. The approach could lead to a bench-top X-ray synchrotron for materials science, pharmaceutical research and nanotechnology research.
  • Metabolic obesity – Evidence from NMR spectroscopic studies of individual metabolic profiles would suggest that the way our bodies digest and process nutrients in the food we eat is different for every person and could ultimately affect overweight and obesity problems.
  • Heavy metal and hardened arteries – The way in which arterial plaques form, atherogenesis, is not yet completely understood despite a significant number of research studies in this area. Now, a study using rabbits on a high-fat diet (HFD) has investigated the effects of changes in the concentrations of heavy metalsin several tissues using spectroscopy.
  • Electronic ‘nose’ can predict pleasantness of novel odours – Our sense of smell may not be as subjective as we thought, as scientists develop an electronic nose that can distinguish between pleasant and unpleasant odours.
  • Scientists embrace openness – "Everybody makes mistakes. And if you don't expose your raw data, nobody will find your mistakes." –Jean-Claude Bradley [no relation]