January 2015 Issue of The Analytical Scientist

Combining art and science is becoming a bit of a theme for The Analytical Scientist. Lewis Carroll’s reference to stereoisomers sent me down my own rabbit hole of discovery.

A new approach to an old idea hyphenates FID detection with bioactivity assays

Is it time to drop your NIR instrument in the pool?

Recombinant blood protein contamination is discovered by chance. NMR to the rescue?

DNA from ancient archive gives researchers a window into animals of the past

Turn your smartphone into a portable fluorescence microscope for imaging and sizing DNA molecules

Do you want your spellbinding scientific poster to be seen by a wider audience?

Combining knowledge from multiple fields inspired a solution to a problem in ion chromatography. What a shame the manufacturer didn’t take the bait...

To make way for more flexible approved analytical methods, we need a better understanding of the underlying scientific principles.

We need to extend the limits of gradient condition optimization beyond reversed-phase separations.

Leveraging technology solutions to support rather than replace dogs in arson investigations.

In Lewis Carroll’s 1871 novel, Through the Looking-Glass, Alice suggests to her black kitten, “Perhaps Looking-Glass milk isn’t good to drink...” And though our four gurus don’t attempt to predict the potability of milk from a mirror world, they keenly address the broader significance of chirality, the major milestones in chiral analysis, and where the field is heading.

Other techniques are beating chromatography and mass spectrometry to the hero’s reward all too often. Are they better? No. Are they faster to first result? Yes. Is it time to acknowledge that – on the frontlines – fit-for-purpose triumphs over best-in-class? You decide.

Electrochemical reaction cells are finding new applications in the pharma R&D lab that could offer big time and cost savings. Here, we share our experiences using electrochemistry with on-line mass spectrometry to study pharmaceutical stability and oxidation products – and explain why we’re electrochemistry converts.

Jenkins Garrett Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Texas at Arlington, USA.

Rapid screening for total mercury content of water, soils and fish takes to the field

In this application note, a selection of different PLA and PLGA polymer samples were analyzed on Malvern's OMNISEC GPC/SEC system, which combines multiple detectors to provide information about structure and solution properties.