Most Read Articles of 2024

1. The PFAS Problem

As health concerns related to per- and poly-fluorinated substances (PFAS) become increasingly apparent, analytical science must rise to the challenge. Stefan van Leeuwen, Richard Jack, Jochen Mueller, and Mark Strynar share their thoughts on “the PFAS problem” – in The Analytical Scientist’s most read article of 2024.

2. The Dark Metabolome: A Figment of Our Fragmentation

Martin Giera and Gary Siuzdak caused a stir this year with their paper suggesting that in-source fragmentation accounts for over 70 percent of the peaks observed in typical LC-MS/MS metabolomic datasets. We reached out to the researchers to find out more about the potential impact for metabolomics research.

3. AI? You Mean Chemometrics

Let’s avoid conflating actual AI – data analysis and chemometrics – with the currently hyped generative AI, says Rasmus Bro. “It cannot be denied that there is a great deal of hype around AI, largely driven by the recent emergence of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT. How these tools will change society, especially in the education and teaching domain, is fascinating. But I’m afraid it just doesn’t have a great deal to do with analyzing analytical chemistry data!”

4. The Positivity Problem

At the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, we published a series of articles on the “perception problem” in analytical science – which became our first cover feature of the year. Richard Zare in his popular 2023 piece argued that we must redefine analytical chemistry so that it is understood as the “science of measurement.” But Jonathan Sweedler wasn’t so sure. “Perhaps we should be looking inwards rather than spending our efforts on rebranding the entire field,” he said.

5. ChatGPT: The Chromatographer’s New Best Friend

Tony Taylor explores how AI in the form of the large language model stacks up as an educational resource, troubleshooting companion, and research curator – one part of our May/June cover feature. We also asked what the AI revolution will mean for educators when ChatGPT can pass a chemistry exam…

6. Imaging Mass Spectrometry: What's Now, What's Next

If we can overcome data integration challenges, imaging mass spectrometry could help open the door to more systems biology-based explorations of health and disease, argued Boone Prentice in this article published in August.

7. Make Analytical Chemistry Cool Again

For this episode in our exploration of the “perception problem” we turned to three up-and-coming researchers discuss why analytical science can sometimes struggle to attract talent to the field. Simona Felletti, Mimi den Uijl, and Ina Varfaj – all winners of the 2023 Separation Science Slam, a competition held at HPLC and organized by The Analytical Scientist and Knauer, weighed in.

8. CD-MS to Megadalton and Beyond

Charge-detection mass spectrometry (CD-MS) has extended the range of MS to gigadalton-sized viruses and polymers; and with a commercial instrument in development and exciting new applications in complex protein mixtures, maturity beckons, according to one of the field’s leading researchers, Martin Jarrold. We also spoke to Evan Williams and Michael Marty about CD-MS’s potential.

9. The Unseen Science

Three of this year’s top 10 were part of our perception problem series. Here, Gert Desmet argues that students are often unaware of the beauty of mass spectrometry and spectroscopy, the role analytical science plays in Nobel-Prize winning research, and the opportunities for tech lovers.

10. Chemical Proteomics: Realizing Therapeutic Potential

In 2024, Scripps Research celebrated its 100-year anniversary! Their motto? Turning scientific inquiry into innovative treatments that benefit the world. In a series of articles – and our March/April cover feature – we aimed to shine a spotlight on some of the leading analytical scientists at Scripps. Here, Chris Parker discusses Scripps’s proteomic legacy and how his work in photoaffinity-based chemical proteomics is leading to the development of potential new therapies.