All Articles Tagged As: toxins

Unlocking the mystery of the duck-billed platypus' venom (1/14/2010)

Abandon any notion that the duck-billed platypus is a soft and cuddly creature -- maybe like Perry the Platypus in the Phineas and Ferb cartoon. The males can deliver a mega-sting that causes immediate, excruciating pain, like hundreds of hornet stings, leaving victims incapacitated for weeks. Now scientists are reporting an advance toward deciphering the chemical composition of the venom, with the first identification of a dozen protein building blocks. ...> Full Article

Start-up company prepares to commercialize novel detector for medical, military applications (10/30/2009)

PAIR Technologies, a start-up company established by University of Delaware researchers and a former DuPont scientist, is preparing to commercialize a high-precision detector -- a planar array infrared spectrograph -- that can identify biological and chemical agents in solids, liquids and gases, in quantities as small as an atom, and in less than a second. ...> Full Article

New X-ray technique illuminates reactivity of environmental contaminants (9/17/2009)

A chemical reaction can occur in the blink of an eye.Thanks to a new analytical method employed by researchers at the University of Delaware, scientists can now pinpoint, at the millisecond level, what happens as harmful environmental contaminants such as arsenic begin to react with soil and water under various conditions. ...> Full Article

Opto-electronic nose sniffs out toxic gases (9/15/2009)

Imagine a polka-dotted postage stamp that can sniff out poisonous gases or deadly toxins simply by changing colors. As reported in the September 13 issue of the journal Nature Chemistry, Kenneth Suslick and his team at the University of Illinois have developed an artificial nose for the general detection of toxic industrial chemicals that is simple, fast and inexpensive -- and works by visualizing odors. ...> Full Article

Researchers devise a fast and sensitive way to detect ricin (4/10/2009)

Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed a simple, accurate, and highly sensitive test to detect and quantify ricin, an extremely potent toxin with potential use as a bioterrorism agent. The report appears as a featured article in the April 12 issue of Analytical Chemistry. ...> Full Article

Researchers report a forceful new method to sensitively detect proteins (3/21/2009)

Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory recently reported the detection of toxins with unprecedented speed, sensitivity and simplicity. The approach can sense as few as a few hundred molecules in a drop of blood in less than 10 minutes, with only four simple steps from sample to answer. ...> Full Article

Team finds Yellowstone alga that detoxifies arsenic (3/11/2009)

Montana State University scientist Tim McDermott and his collaborators have found Yellowstone alga that detoxifies arsenic. A paper explaining the discovery is published in an online edition of the scientific journal PNAS. ...> Full Article

Tiny 'lab-on-a-chip' detects pollutants, disease and biological weapons (3/3/2009)

Tel Aviv University scientists develop highly accurate nano-scale biomonitoring solution ...> Full Article

Living sensor can warn of arsenic pollution (9/10/2008)

Scientists studying arsenic pollution have discovered a living sensor that can spot contamination ...> Full Article

Scientists use bacteria to pinpoint chloride toxins (9/9/2008)

Scientists use bacteria to pinpoint chloride toxins ...> Full Article

Green catalysts provide promise for cleaning toxins and pollutants (8/20/2008)

Small-molecule catalysts have the potential to be even more effective ...> Full Article

Using live fish, new tool a sentinel for environmental contamination (8/15/2008)

Researchers have harnessed the sensitivity of days-old fish embryos to create a tool capable of detecting a range of harmful chemicals. ...> Full Article

Killer pulses help characterize special surfaces (7/31/2008)

Researchers have devised a method to evaluate substrate surfaces by using a series of killer laser pulses ...> Full Article

Toxic chemicals found in common scented laundry products, air fresheners (7/29/2008)

Study of top-selling laundry products and air fresheners found the products emitted dozens of different chemicals. All six products tested gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, but none of those chemicals was listed on the product labels. ...> Full Article

Persistent Man-Made Chemicals (6/11/2008)

Contamination of the deep oceanic food web is occurring, new study reports ...> Full Article

New cell-based sensors sniff out danger like bloodhounds (5/10/2008)

Collaborating across engineering disciplines to make advanced 'cell-based sensors-on-a-chip' technology possible ...> Full Article

'Green' method decontaminates deadly nerve agents (4/13/2008)

Research by two scientists has resulted in an exciting new method for rapidly and safely destroying toxic agents such as chemical weapons and pesticides. ...> Full Article

Technology uses live cells to detect food-borne pathogens, toxins (3/5/2008)

Researchers have developed a new technology that can simultaneously screen thousands of samples of food or water for several dangerous food-borne pathogens in one to two hours. ...> Full Article

Fireweed thrives on rise of mud (12/1/2007)

Removing sediment and reducing industrial runoff into Moreton Bay will not only help control fireweed but improve the general health of the Bay, UQ research shows. ...> Full Article

Cleanup method uses activated carbon to anchor toxins to bottom of the bay (11/30/2007)

Imagine a Brita filter big enough to clean up San Francisco Bay. ...> Full Article

'Mini-rivers' may detect explosives, toxins better than other types of sensors (11/16/2007)

Researchers developing new type of sensor that may be markedly better at sniffing out explosives, cocaine or environmental toxins than sensors now on the market ...> Full Article

New discovery in how plants fight toxins (10/5/2007)

Although plants lack humans' T cells and other immune-function cells to signal and fight infection, scientists have known for more than 100 years that plants still somehow signal that they have been attacked in order to trigger a plantwide resistance. Now, researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) on the Cornell campus have identified the elusive signal in the process: methyl salicylate, an aspirin-like compound that alerts a plant's immune system to shift into high gear. ...> Full Article

New grants to help researchers improve nuclear detection, domestic security (9/14/2007)

A pair of federal grants will help researchers improve domestic security by developing better methods of detecting nuclear material. ...> Full Article

New instrument covertly detects signals from illicit chemicals (8/31/2007)

A new instrument can covertly detect chemical plumes at great distances and may help thwart future chemical or nuclear-based terrorist attacks. The technology has a number of other uses, as well, from detecting environmental pollution to determining the extent of tissue damage in burn victims without physical contact. ...> Full Article