In celebration of the approaching New Year, I present a list of my most popular science stories of 2009. Taken from the vast expanse of all fields of science, they may not be everyone's top ten, but they are among the top news makers and will have repercussions well past the ending days of 2009.
This story actually begins in a classroom. Dr. Yuegang Zuo of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth was teaching a course in forensic chemistry, and he needed a real-world project for his students. Previous studies of this sort had been conducted in the past, but new technology made it a unique project for college kids. The results, however, made it a unique study for academics and law enforcement alike.
Analysis of 234 US bills from 17 cities revealed that up to 90 percent of paper money was laced with cocaine, a 20 percent jump from a similar study conducted two years ago. The smallest amount detected was .006 micrograms, showing that the new modified form of a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer was capable of seeing traces of the drug that was several thousands times more miniscule than a single grain of sand. The highest amount was 1,240 micrograms on a single banknote, an amount equal to 50 grains of sand.
Zuo thinks that much of the contamination may happen in the banks as bills are run through high-speed money counters. However, those bills that carry large amounts probably are involved in drug deals. By mapping where those bills are circulated, police officers may be able to make maps that follow the flow of drugs. It would help them learn how prevalent a drug is in a community.
Based on the bills collected for the initial study, a trend in cities emerged. In Washington DC, 95 percent of money had cocaine, but in Salt Lake there was far less. There were trends in countries as well, with Canada was close to the US at 85%, but China only saw 20%
China is a particular interest. “When the Communist party was in charge of the country, the use of the drug was completely forbidden,” says Zuo. But the traces of cocaine is still there, and that is a surprise. And as the landscape of China's government changes, this could be a chance to watch a real-time model of how drug use grows and spreads.
A point that the study brings up is that almost everyone is carrying drugs in their pockets. By showing the prevalence, it alerts law enforcement to the fact that just because someone has money with drug traces does not mean that person is at all involved with drugs.
“Someone with a contaminated banknote could get in trouble,” he says, especially as the techniques for detecting drugs becomes even more sensitive. So monitoring levels of contamination on bills in circulation is key to keeping police officers and others better understand how the drug travels throughout the community.
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