• Question: I am not sure about how to find out the chemiical shifts and Spin-spin coupling

    Asked by winniezhang to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 9 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 9 Nov 2012:

      sorry, me neither 😉 All I can say is that I remember that it exists and that it was lectured in physical chemistry and that it has probably nothing to do with cancer. Not entirely true: there is a connection to medical imaging with MRT. So fellow scientists: is there a hidden physicist amongst you?

    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      Crikey, your question is stirring a very distant memory in my brain…! I can’t remember exactly but I think spin-spin coupling is something to do with the way protons line up in a magnetic field. I think chemical shift is something to do with the chemical environment in the nucleus and the amount of resonance. Both are important in a technique called in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) which can be used to find out the molecular structure of a sample such as a cancer tissue sample. You might have heard of MRI – magnetic resonance imaging which is when people go into a really big machine to have parts of their body scanned. The information that comes back can tell medical doctors about what is going on in the body.

      Sorry, that was a tricky one and I can’t quite remember all the details!

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