Believe it or not NMR spectroscopy no longer requires a magnetic field!

The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance or often abbreviated as NMR is an ineludible word in the medicine and biology field. Until now the technology was limited to a large extent as it was unable to perform it in the absence of a magnetic field. But magnetic field can no more be a barrier to NMR’s. The researchers at the University of Melbourne have demonstrated a way to detect nuclear spins in molecules non-invasively, providing a new tool for biotechnology and materials science. The best feature that the technology portrays is that it uses the non-invasive technology – the absence of conventional machines. This technology can overcome the significant limitations with conventional NMR methods, which depend on machines that can exceed 10 tonnes. The team of researchers has used a quantum probe to perform microwave-free NMR at the nanoscale. In addition to being able to detect NMR in far smaller samples than conventional machines, the technique does not require the application of microwave fields that might disrupt biological samples. If researches like this often come up, there are better chances of exploring the basic building blocks of life.