A different spin on NMR

Abstract

Not that kind of instrument “ Resonance” is right there in the name of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, but the technique doesn’t make most chemists think of music. Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy , a biophysical chemist at the University of Michigan, thinks it should. Wanting a reliable way to teach NMR to students, he and graduate student Srikar Munukutla translated the NMR spectra of organic compounds into musical notes. In traditional proton—or 1 H—NMR, chemists use the chemical shifts of hydrogen atoms to help identify molecular structures. Normally reported in parts per million, these shifts are related to the electromagnetic frequencies that resonate with the spins of electrons on hydrogen atoms inside a big magnet . With a standard equation, chemists can convert the shifts into hertz—a measure of frequency in cycles per second. Music notes are also in hertz , so NMR spectra can be made into music. The team took