Subjects, such as resource optimization or better energy usage, have arrived in the laboratory. What does this mean for the most important separation method, chromatography? An inventory shows the amount of optimization potential in the technology that is more than 100 years old.

Tattoo removal using laser radiation can carry health risks depending on the breakdown products formed. Scientists have now shown that pyrolysis GC/MS can be used to simulate the breakdown process and determine the compounds formed from a given ink during laser treatment. Phthalocyanine blue (B15:3), for example, was shown to form a cell poison in the process.

Extremely sensitive analytical instruments capable of assaying analytes in the femtogram range have meanwhile become standard equipment in many laboratories. But their accuracy in analysis of drinking water is decisively influenced by the right choice of syringe filter unit, as described in this article.

To clarify whether and when a handgun was fired, forensic scientists search for and analyze Gunshot Residue (GSR) deposits. One highly interesting aspect of GSR is the presence of volatile organic chemical residues, which can offer clues as to when a weapon was fired. An innovative extraction technique based on Headspace Sorptive Extraction (HSSE) and Gerstel Twister has now been shown to extract additional information from spent cartridges.

A Norwegian-German collaboration has developed a new, rapid monitoring system for checking indoor air quality in the space station, 400 km above the Earth.

In freshwater lakes, large amounts of the greenhouse gas methane are oxidized by bacteria before it can be emitted into the atmosphere. A study in Lakes Rotsee and Zug has now shown that the bulk of this work is done, not by “classical” methane consumers, but by filamentous bacteria previously known only as contaminants of water supplies.

Evacuated space is a good place for research and manufacture. It has been a long journey though from a philosophical question in ancient times to today’s significance of the vacuum. It was Wolfgang Gaede who in the early 20th century laid the foundation for modern vacuum technology with his molecular pump.

At this year's Pittcon in Chicago Thermo Fisher Scientific presented several new instruments including a new ICP-MS system and a Raman spectrometer designed to provide simultaneous analytical data at a single measurement point. They also highlighted the first new products from their latest acquisition, electron microscopy specialist FEI.

Are there differences in quality between stored and freshly prepared ultrapure water? This article presents the results for the use of ultrapure water in gel electrophoresis and provides recommendations for the production of ultrapure water.

Researchers led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) report on the synthesis of a library of more than 330,000 reference peptides representing essentially all canonical proteins of the human proteome. This research is a major milestone in the ProteomeTools project which aims at translating human proteome information into new molecular and digital tools with the potential for use in drug discovery, personalized medicine and life science research.