Both articles focus on detecting melamine, the plastic additive at the centre of the China milk scandal which caused thousands to fall ill, and four babies to die. Some comprehensive and well-researched coverage of the melamine milk scandal can be found on Sciencebase here.

The article authors describe two different mass spectrometry techniques which use ambient ionisation – so no special atmosphere or environment is required to prepare the sample.

They suggest the techniques could be developed to produce a “kit” which could be used on the production line cheaply, quickly and without much special training.

You can read more about the articles in Chemical Science, a news supplement included with some RSC journals. View the news story here.

Perhaps my favourite bit, though, is that they tried to initiate the reaction using starting points other than fingerprints; they found that tiny residues of inkjet ink would show up brown as they started the polymerisation. Again, the limit is so low that they could even highlight the ink residues on the envelope a document had previously been in. With a bit of Photoshopping you could actually tell what text had been printed on the document, without ever seeing the original. Nifty eh? Here’s a sample:

With a bit of Photoshop and a bit of imagination...

For more detailed info read the Chemical Technology story posted recently.