(WesternFarmPress) - Alka-Seltzer has been soothing human indigestion and heartburn for years. Now, it's helping out the wine industry. Elemental sulfur is wine's "frenemy" - it effectively keeps the ubiquitous powdery mildew disease in vineyards at bay, but excessive residues carried over into wine can result in a rotten egg aroma. Now a new, inexpensive method developed by Cornell scientists gives the wine industry a way to protect both vines and fermentations by monitoring residues -- using Alka-Seltzer tablets to make a winery-friendly protocol. The same protocol may be useful for such industries as construction, wastewater management, petrochemicals and forensic analysis, say the researchers.