Fertilisation assisted

Romundstad, Liv Bente, et al. Effects of Technology or Maternal Factors on Perinatal Outcome After Assisted Fertilisation A Population-based Cohort Study. The Lancet 372, no. 9640 (August, 2008) 737-743. Finds that adverse outcomes associated with births following assisted reproduction are not caused by technological fectors. Includes several tables. 

In hospitals, chemical analysis is widely used to assist in the diagnosis of illness and in monitoring the condition of patients. In farming, the nature and level of fertiliser application is based upon information obtained by analysis of the soil to determine its content of the essential plant nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and of the trace elements which are necessary for healthy plant growth. 

Similarly, in hospitals, chemical analysis can also assist in the diagnosis of illness and can be used to monitor the conditions of patients and assist medical personnel. In agriculture, monitoring the level of fertilisers through their elements for benefiting or non-benefiting effects, e.g. phosphorous, potassium, transition elements, etc., is also important and analytical science plays a decisive role here. 

The fact that the normal fertiliser and liming program makes no provision for the replacement of losses of essential trace elements from the soil has led to a situation where commercial interests are able to market shot-gun mixtures to farmers with problems, sometimes at exhorbitant prices. Extravagant claims have been made for some of these products in order to justify their widespread sale. Many farmers are now acquainted with the fact that dramatic improvements in productivity of crops or stock are possible when a particular trace-element deficiency is remedied by supplying the appropriate element, and salesmen are sometimes assisted in their efforts to sell shot-gun mixtures by the mystique now associated with the term trace elements. It is unlikely, however, that on most farms, the application of a mixture containing all the essential trace elements would have any significant effect on crop yields in the short term. 

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