5 ms·
Why should she not be able to detect some kinds of cancers? Some dogs can. In the end, all this should not be so difficult. Take the head space, then do MS of
by Beijinger 3y ago
Why should she not be able to detect some kinds of cancers? Some dogs can.
In the end, all this should not be so difficult. Take the head space, then do MS of a bunch of people with these diseases and the head space and MS of healthy people as a comparison. The delta gives the disease.
- londons_explore 3y agoI'm not sure any of today's mass spectrometers yet can match human smell in sensitivity, at least to some scents with larger more complex molecules.
- throwawaymaths 3y agoMass specs can detect down to the ten thousands? IIRC or so molecules.
- londons_explore 3y agoBut I don't think they can do that at the same time as having trillions of some other uninteresting molecule like water in them. It's basically a dynamic range problem.
- sseagull 3y agoMass specs would have this problem, yes. That's why they are usually paired with chromatography of some sort (usually GC/MS or LC/MS). The GC or LC more or less reduce a mixture into components, which are fed into the mass spectrometer to analyze what those components are.
- throwawaymaths 3y agoYep the Ms that does this is tethered to chromatography first (sometimes even 2 or 3 different separation schemes in tandem)
- Beijinger 3y ago"with larger more complex molecules." What are "larger, more complex, molecules"? Without trolling, I think scent cuts off at a MW 330 or something.
- kolinko 3y agoBut it's not as good with distinguishing complex organic molecules one from another, no? I.e. between various proteins of a similar size.
- literalAardvark 3y agoMass spectrometry gives results that are a bit like the ingredient lists for food. Tells you precious little about the actual product.
- Beijinger 3y agoYou don't smell proteins.