nuclear confereneces

An experimental technique that started life in nuclear and particle physics is now being used to measure chemical reactions inside the human body and to help diagnose cancer and heart disease in almost 50 clinical trials. Jack Miller charts the unexpected rise of dynamic nuclear polarization, which is vastly improving the quality of magnetic resonance imaging Life, for physicists, is an odd thing, seeming to create order in a universe that mostly tends towards disorder. At a biochemical level, life is even stranger – controlled and thermodynamically powered by a myriad of different molecules that most of us have probably never heard of. In fact, there’s one molecule – pyruvic acid – that’s crucial in keeping us alive. When burned, pyruvic acid releases carbon dioxide and water. If you’re exercising hard and your muscles are running low on oxygen, it’s converted anaerobically into lactic acid, which can give you a painful stitch. Later, your liver recycles the lactic acid back into suga