Tag Archives: iso-signatures

Isotopes, beverages, and nuclear isotope shortages

Nanowerk recently posted a news item about isotopes and beverages which indicates that scientists can track your geographic location because the beverages you drink leave a signature or trace  in your hair. From the news item,

The scientists analyzed isotope patterns in bottled water, soda pop, and beer from 33 cities and found that patterns in the beverages generally matched those already known for the tap water. They noted that the isotope pattern in beverages tends to vary from city to city in ways that give cities in different regions characteristic “iso-signatures.” A person who drinks a beer or soda in Denver, Des Moines, or Dallas, for instance, consumes a different isotope signature than a person in Las Cruces, Las Vegas, or Laramie. The finding may help trace the origin of drinks or help criminal investigators identify the geographic travels of crime suspects and other individuals through analysis of hair strands, the study suggests.

I think Sherlock Holmes would have liked this. On another note, for anyone (like me) who’s not quite sure what an isotope is, I found a number of definitions and this one best fits the use described in the news item,

some elements have more than one form. They differ only in nuclear terms rather than chemical ones and have different relative atomic mass as a result. They may behave slightly differently which allows us to use them in geography for a number of measurements relating to constructing past conditions. http://www.tuition.com.hk/geography/i.htm

On other isotopic fronts, Dave Bruggeman at Pasco Phronesis posted about a move by the Government of British Columbia (a Canadian province) to address the shortage of medical isotopes. There was a bit of a scandal last year when Canadians found out that the Chalk River facility which produces a fair chunk (1/3 according to this Wikipedia essay) of the global supply of  isotopes used for medical purposes was badly deteriorating.

There have been a number of problems with the facility since 2007 culminating in a shutdown in 2009 which helped to precipitate a worldwide shortage and a Canadian scandal. The Chalk River facility has yet to reopen but (from Pasco Phronesis),

… The B.C. Premier recently announced that a $63 million (Canadian) accelerator facility will be developed at the national physics lab [TRIUMF] in Vancouver (H/T Science Canada). The use of an accelerator for generating isotopes is critical, as it’s a relatively new means for doing so. It allows for a means to move away from using fission reactors for isotope generation.

Bravo Premier Campbell! Margaret Munro in her June 23, 2010 article about the initiative noted in the Vancouver Sun,

Premier Gordon Campbell, who handed over $30.7 million for the project, talked up the more down-to-earth benefits, such as helping alleviate the global medical-isotope shortage, and demonstrating that B.C. is home to “world-class ” science and groundbreaking technology.

The new accelerator promises “a new way to produce the radio isotopes needed by doctors and patients everywhere,” Campbell said.

The provincial money means construction can begin this summer on the powerful accelerator that is expected to beam Canada into the forefront of subatomic and isotope research. The Canada Foundation for Innovation has invested $18 million, and $14 million will come from core federal funding for TRIUMF.

Isotopes, used for medical scans and treatments, are now made by aging and increasingly unreliable nuclear reactors [Chalk River]. Researchers at TRIUMF are working with teams across Canada to explore new options.

This doesn’t sound like the same kind of isotope the chemists were talking about with the beverages and the discussion of geographic tracking. If I understand the difference rightly, the isotopes in the beverages are naturally occurring while these other isotopes are engineered and, I imagine, less stable. For anyone who loves definitions, here’s another one for isotopes,

an atom that has more neutrons in the nucleus than its stable counterpart. For example: Hydrogen has one electron and a nucleus containing one proton, Deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen) has one electron plus a nucleus containing one proton and one neutron. www.hiper-laser.org/glossary.asp