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Science 19 January 1996:
Vol. 271. no. 5247, pp. 286 - 287
DOI: 10.1126/science.271.5247.286
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News & Comment

Jonathan Weisman

To judge the biological risk of trace compounds, researchers traditionally give huge doses to a rat--a procedure of questionable relevance to human beings exposed to normal doses. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), a technique borrowed from archaeology that can detect trace amounts of an isotope, is opening a view of the biological activity of smaller doses. The idea is to tag the suspect compound with carbon-14, feed a "normal" dose to a rat, and use AMS to track down the telltale isotope in the rat's tissues.




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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)