March 2014 Issue of The Analytical Scientist

As instrumentation becomes ever more sophisticated, the connection between the analytical question being asked and the answer provided is steadily eroding.

Will you die in the next five years? NMR spectroscopy reveals biomarker signatures associated with mortality.

Nick Kim gifts us with his very analytical and amusing view of the world around us.

Could a DNA-savvy clean-tech startup disrupt the water analysis market?

Studies of a cyanobacterium have offered the first glimpse of redox activity in living cells. What does that mean for biofuel production?

In May, the 41st International Symposium on High Performance Liquid Phase Separations rolls into New Orleans. Here, we offer our top picks from the preliminary program.

Nick Kim is an analytical environmental chemist by day and analytical artist by night. What makes him tick?

Will the future see crime scene investigators collecting breath samples from potential perpetrators to identify them? In a word: no.

A broad-based and ongoing scientific education is essential to the success of the research enterprise. We risk losing it.

Right now, we can only see small pieces of the colossal picture entitled “Food and Health”.

Raman spectroscopy has multifaceted appeal but requires an additional metrological dimension to make it a truly competitive quantitative technology.

How safe is the water? Four gurus of water analysis sense a looming threat from complex mixtures of pollutants. They propose intelligent, integrated monitoring approaches to combat the fear of the unknown.

A multitude of wearable biosensors for monitoring our personal health and the external environment are on the way, led by technologies to improve performance in sport and all-round fitness. They are easy to use, will cost little and provide useful, real-time information. Stand by for the democratization of analysis.

With more than 150 mass spectrometry-oriented business deals in 2013, it can be hard to find method in the madness. Here, I highlight nine key agreements that indicate strategic trends.

Sitting Down With… Wolfgang Lindner, Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Analytical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria

Moving from 1D to 2D liquid chromatography is a big step towards the high peak capacities demanded by complex sample analysis.

Dwight Stoll has been working in 2D-LC since 2000. Here, he talks about the benefits of what is a core technology in his research.