Popularity of food authentication on the rise

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Camille

4/30/2012

Where did that organic beef come from, anyway? Isotopic analysis is helping identify unscrupulous food producers.

– by Jenni Spinner, Senior Editor / Packaging Digest

Food authentication techniques are gaining popularity, partly because of growing concerns about fraud involving organic and sustainable foods. Organic Monitor finds this development is encouraging sustainability by providing greater traceability across the supply chain.

The market for organic and eco-labelled foods has grown from almost nothing to over USD 60 billion within 20 years. High market growth rates and the premium associated with sustainable foods have attracted unscrupulous businesses looking to profit from ethical consumerism. Indeed, the number of fraudulent incidents involving food products has mushroomed in recent years. Last month, an American broker was jailed for two years for passing off conventional corn as organic. Since February 2011, the USDA has reported 12 incidents of fake organic certificates; the origins of these fake certificates – Asia, Africa, Middle-East, Caribbean and Europe – demonstrate how international food fraud has become.  Read more here.

 

Posted in For the Student, Industrial, Isotope Research, Naturally Occurring, Research, Stable Isotopes, Uses for Isotopes | Leave a comment

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Camille

4/30/2012

Carbon isotopes in methane gas reveal significant details about Titan, Saturn’s giant moon.

By modeling how the concentration of heavy methane changes over time, the scientists predicted how long Titan’s chemical factory has been running.

Saturn’s giant moon Titan hides within a thick, smoggy atmosphere that’s well-known to scientists as one of the most complex chemical environments in the solar system. It’s a productive “factory” cranking out hydrocarbons that rain down on Titan’s icy surface, cloaking it in soot and, with a brutally cold surface temperature of around minus 270 degrees Fahrenheit, forming lakes of liquid methane and ethane.

However the most important raw ingredient in this chemical factory – methane gas, a molecule made up of one carbon atom joined to four hydrogen atoms – should not last for long because it’s being continuously destroyed by sunlight and converted to more complex molecules and particles.

New research from NASA-funded scientists attempts to estimate how long this factory has been operating. The results are presented as two papers appearing in the April 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.  Read more.

 

 

 

 

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The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica – Not Sitting Down

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Camille

4/30/2012

Oxygen isotopes help scientists understand glacial changes in Antarctica

Person on snowmobile pulls sled.

– by Peter Rejcek, Antarctic Sun Editor

Scientists are generally in agreement that glaciers in West Antarctica are charging ever faster toward the coast, releasing more ice to the sea, particularly in the Amundsen Sea region.

What’s far less clear is whether there is enough snowfall on Antarctica’s unstable, marine-based ice sheet to offset the loss of ice, which is slowly contributing to sea-level rise. It’s what researchers call ice sheet mass balance.

Ever more sophisticated sensors on satellites and radars flown aboard aircraft are capable of collecting precise measurements that are fed into computer models that spit out mass balance calculations. But what’s the reality on the ground? Read more:  The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica – Not Sitting Down.

Posted in For the Student, Isotope Research, Naturally Occurring, Research, Stable Isotopes, Uses for Isotopes | Leave a comment

Researchers find method of identifying sources of NOx emissions – Power Engineering

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Camille

4/19/2012

A team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has developed a method that could identify the sources of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

Researchers collected emissions samples from several power plant stacks in the U.S. and developed a method for detecting the isotopic signatures of NOx emissions under different configurations. These isotopic signatures will be instrumental in helping to identify emission sources of air pollution across the nation. … Read more:  Researchers find method of identifying sources of NOx emissions – Power Engineering.

Posted in For the Professional, For the Student, Industrial, Isotope Research, Naturally Occurring, Research, Uses for Isotopes | Leave a comment

This planet obeys the law—stats on volcanic eruptions show pattern called Benford\’s Law

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Camille

4/18/2012

This planet obeys the law—stats on volcanic eruptions show pattern called Benford's Law

Scientists delight in extracting order from chaos—finding patterns in the complexity of the real world that pull back the curtain and reveal how things work. Sometimes, though, those patterns create more head-scratching than excitement. Such is the case with Benford’s law. One might expect a collection of real-world data—say, the half-lives of various isotopes, for example—to pretty much look like random numbers. And one might further expect the first (non-zero) digit of each of those numbers to also be random (i.e. just as many 2s as 9s).

Oddly, one would (in many cases) be wrong. It turns out that 1s are more likely than 2s, which are more likely than 3s, and so on. Not only that, the probabilities match a logarithmic distribution, just like the spacing on a logarithmic scale. The number 1 will be the first digit about 30 percent of the time, 2 will occur nearly 18 percent of the time, all the way on down to 9 showing up only about 5 percent of the time.

Law-abiding citizens everywhere will be happy to know our planet also obeys Benford’s Law, with the duration and size of volcanic eruptions showing the same sort of pattern. … Read more.

This planet obeys the law—stats on volcanic eruptions show pattern called Benford\’s Law.

Posted in General Isotope Information, Isotope Research, Radioisotopes | Leave a comment

Earth may be younger than we think

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Camille

4/18/2012

When hearing that the isotopic ratio for uranium has been measured to a more accurate value of 137.818, from a previous value of 137.88, one might not think it is such a big deal. However, a recent study indicates that this small bit of change calls for an age reduction of understood geological processes for up to 700,000 years. The study was conducted at the British Geological Survey and MIT — the same research group that determined the new value. … Read more: Earth may be younger than we think – Science & Technology – The Johns Hopkins News-Letter – Johns Hopkins University.

Posted in For the Student, Isotope Research, Naturally Occurring, Radioisotopes, Research, Uncategorized, Uses for Isotopes | Leave a comment

Ammonites found mini oases at ancient methane seeps

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Camille

4/18/2012

Isotopes of carbon, oxygen and strontium reveal surprises about the sea creatures that once lived in what is now the American Great Plains. 

This image shows the variety of invertebrate fossils collected from the methane seep studied for this research. The scale bar applies to all except A, D, H and K. Credit: (AMNH\S. Thurston)

Research led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History shows that ammonites—an extinct type of shelled mollusk that’s closely related to modern-day nautiluses and squids—made homes in the unique environments surrounding methane seeps in the seaway that once covered America’s Great Plains. The findings, published online on April 10 in the journal Geology, provide new insights into the mode of life and habitat of these ancient animals. … Read more.

– courtesy American Museum of Natural History

Posted in For the Student, Isotope Research, Naturally Occurring, Research, Stable Isotopes, Uses for Isotopes | Leave a comment

An Alpha Edge?

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Camille

4/18/2012

A radium isotope may help prolong life of prostate cancer patients –

– by Edward B. Silberstein, MA, MD, FACNM

Dr. Cheetham and Dr. Petrylak have provided a most helpful review of the available data on use of radium-223 dichloride (223RaCl2), known as Alpharadin, in the treatment of osteoblastic metastatic prostate carcinoma. A technique for separating the daughter 223Ra from the parent 227Ac has been developed at the Department of Energy Hanford Site, Office of National Isotope Programs.[1,2] Alpharadin appears to be the first bone-seeking radiopharmaceutical to prolong the life span; the beta-emitting bone seekers (rhenium-186 HEDP [186Re-HEDP], rhenium-188 HEDP [188Re-HEDP], samarium-153 lexidronam [153Sm-lexidronam], and strontium-89 chloride [89SrCl2] do not. … Read more.

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Nuclear Power Europe: Conference & Exhibition

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Camille

June 12-14, 2012

Koelnmesse, Cologne, Germany

Now in its third year, Nuclear Power Europe offers a comprehensive conference and exhibition for the European nuclear power industry.

Over three days, Nuclear Power Europe will include an insightful and thought provoking conference covering strategic and technical topics chosen and presented by industry practitioners themselves. The conference will look at the benefits of nuclear power within a balanced energy mix.

Read more …

 

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What’s the Moon Made Of? Earth, Most Likely.

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Camille

4/12/2012

Isotopes of oxygen and titanium suggest a new theory as to the moon’s origins.

Recent research on lunar samples has shown that the Moon may be made of more Earth than green cheese — if by “green cheese” you mean the protoplanet impactor that was instrumental in its creation.  Read more:  What’s the Moon Made Of? Earth, Most Likely.

Posted in For the Student, Isotope Research, Naturally Occurring, Research, Stable Isotopes, Uses for Isotopes | Leave a comment