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The Atomic Level Athletic Frontier
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# : |
17311 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1990 |
1,633 Words |
| Author
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Richrd A. Goodman
Richard A. Goodman is a free-lance writer residing in Oakland.
He specializes in anthropology and in the conjunction of
science and athletics. |
Nuclear weapon weldings and the world's fastest swimmer have something remarkable in common. Their constituent chemical elements have been analyzed by an ICP atomic emission spectrometer. Innovative applications of a machine already 15 years old now promise new advances in human performance and health maintenance.
The ICP (inductively coupled plasma) spectrometer was commercially introduced in 1974 by the Applied Research Laboratories division of Bausch and Lomb in Southern California. Although one of the instruments was installed at the Cottage Hospital at Santa Barbara, California, in the mid 1970s to develop clinical applications, this initiative faltered - for management reasons, not scientific reasons - and until recently few biomedical uses of the ICP spectrometer had been developed.
In the meantime, the technology has been continuously improved and numerous useful industrial applications have been realized. For example, when analysis of the composition of shavings from the welded seam of an atomic weapon's casing reveals that it would be too weak, the defective casing can be rewelded or replaced. In one of the machine's first uses, Hughes Aircraft personnel ran jet engines, then periodically analyzed the resultant "wear oil." This helped maintenance crews determine when to change engine parts. Most large railroads now use the device in similar way, and most steel and aluminum factories use it for determining product composition, an essential step in quality control. Water companies also use the ICP spectrometer to check product purity. And police departments have even found it useful in the chemical analysis of evidence. The Environmental Protection Agency uses the ICP spectrometer to determine whether waste dump soil
... (1994 of 10724 Characters)
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