In order to make biofuel production from biomass as efficient as possible it will be crucial to understand the underlying chemical mechanisms running the reactions. Researchers in Northern Ireland are using infra-red spectroscopy and mass spectrometry to get to the core of the problem.
Frederic Meunier of the CENTACAT research labs at Queen’s University Belfast and his colleagues like many other scientists expect hydrogen to be the currency of the hydrogen economy and that the mint will rely on effective and inexpensive catalysts to produce the gas from renewable resources, such as biomass. Meunier and his colleagues are investigating platinum and rhodium based catalysts used to line the hollows in porous alumina or cerium zirconate.
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Is the hydrogen economy going to solve our energy woes? What do you think?
Infrared and NMR spectroscopy have possibly revealed one of the great secrets of the violin makers Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu – they used chemical wood preservatives to help preserve their instruments and to improve the tonal quality. The discovery could help modern-day violin makers emulate more closely the properties of irreplaceable violins from the 18th Century and well as providing music conservationists with new insights on how to best preserve the antique instruments.
A new study reveals that the static snapshots recorded in protein crystallography may be missing the bigger picture. Investigations of a bacterial protein using cryomicroscopy shows the protein in a balloon-like mode previously hidden from sold state studies. The discovery suggests that techniques complementary to X-ray crystallography are essential if molecular biology is to gain a complete understanding of protein structure. 
Breast cancer remains the most common form of cancer among women but screening with mammography involves exposure to ionising radiation and suffers from a high rate of false positives that then require a definitive assay. In the December issue of the journal Biopolymers, researchers in India describe how Raman spectroscopy might be used to discriminate between normal, benign, and malignant breast tissue and so provide a simple and relatively non-invasive complement to a suspicious mammogram. 
Asthma sufferers, non-smokers, and those who really just don’t care for passive-smoking-induced lung cancer can breathe a long sigh of relief as England follows other enlightened states and places a ban on smoking in enclosed public places, such as pubs, clubs, and restaurants, from July 1, 2007.