Spectroscopy

When you're trying to establish who was present when a crime was committed, every little clue helps. That's where a newly repurposed forensic technique comes in, as it can determine if oral fluid comes from a smoker or non-smoker.

Astronomers may have found a world where it rains iron. The exoplanet is exposed to thousands of times the radiation that the Earth receives from the Sun, rendering the surface hot enough to vaporize metals that later fall as rain.

Spanish scientists have developed a new verification system, which is said to be completely accurate at determining an egg's classification.

NASA astronomers have managed to probe the atmosphere of GJ 3470 b, a planet unlike any in our solar system. It marks the first time for this kind of world, and could be a step towards identifying potentially habitable planets.

A new eye has joined the hunt for planets around nearby stars. The instrument, dubbed SPIRou, has been installed at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, where it has achieved first light by snapping the spectrum of the star AD Leonis.

​If you've seen even one advertisement for premium coffee, then you've probably heard someone going on about "100 percent pure Arabica beans" … but does the coffee REALLY only contain Arabicas? A new method makes it quicker, cheaper and easier to find out.

An international team of astronomers has released survey data detailing the chemical fingerprints of over 340,000 stars. The observations could be used to identify stellar bodies that formed alongside our Sun billions of years ago.

​That ground beef that you're buying may not be 100 percent ground beef. Sometimes, unscrupulous meat producers will mix in ground offal, in order to stretch their beef supply farther. A new technique, however, uses a laser to detect the presence of such cow innards.

​An international team of astronomers has completed the deepest spectroscopic survey of the early universe ever undertaken, collecting data on 1,600 galaxies, and discovering 72 previously unknown galaxies.

​The ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a beautiful image of a planetary nebula known as NGC 7009, or the Saturn Nebula, as part of a wider study attempting to unravel the processes that give these vast cosmic clouds of dust and glowing gas their distinctive shape.

​Ordinarily, for the spectral analysis of peoples' blood, urine or saliva samples, lab-based machines costing thousands of dollars are required. Now, however, scientists have created a US$550 3D-printed device that works with a smartphone to do the same tests with just as much accuracy.

​As tomatoes ripen, they change in color from green to orange to red. Assessing when they're at peak ripeness is done with the naked eye, and is therefore somewhat subjective. Thanks to new research, however, producers may soon be using a laser device to take the guesswork out of the equation.