For generations, the hunger of cancer cells has been made visible through radioactive tracers and the costly infrastructure they demand. Now, a team of researchers has demonstrated in mouse models that glucosamine — a compound familiar to health food shelves — can reveal the same metabolic signature of brain tumors when paired with a specialized MRI technique, without a single radioactive atom involved. The finding is early, but it points toward a future in which the search for tumors inside the brain becomes safer, cheaper, and more widely available to those who need it most.