The Column-04-18-2011

Flavour analysis of a Bloody Mary has provided some key insights into the best ways to mix the drink. The challenges and findings of cocktail?s analysis were presented at the 241st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

The Canadian National Research Council?s Institute for Marine Biosciences (NRC-IMB) has signed an agreement with AB SCIEX that will enable researchers worldwide to benefit from the insitute?s experience in the detection and identification of marine and freshwater biotoxins and the creation of certified reference materials.

In 1958 the University of Chicago zapped a simulated primordial earth atmosphere with a series of electrical discharges to demonstrate the way in which organic compounds may have been originally synthesized on Earth. Archived and unreported samples have recently been uncovered and submitted to modern analytical techniques, which have revealed even more abundant amino acid and amine yields than previous experiments.

NASA has selected ITT Analytics' OI Analytical total organic carbon analyser to measure water quality on board the International Space Station. A conductivity temperature meter from the company will also be used.

What fuels our enthusiasm and transforms what on first appearance may seem a boring technique into something that offers inspiration?

We discuss polyolefins and high temperature GPC in terms of engineering advances.

Dafydd Milton of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Runcorn, Cheshire, UK talks about the analytical challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry and developments made to overcome them.

Latin America is one of the most interesting developing markets for the analytical instrumentation industry. The region is home to 600 million people with a total GDP of more than $6 trillion.