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Archive: 2011 | 2010

Welcome to Chemical & Engineering News's Analytical SCENE, an up-to-the-minute stream of news about analytical research and business, including coverage of cutting-edge measurement methodology, new chemical sensors, the latest spectroscopic techniques, and recent moves by instrumentation companies.

October 26, 2011

Method Spots DNA Modifications On Single Strands

Method Spots DNA Modifications On Single Strands

Epigenetics: Patterning approach may help researchers monitor DNA methylation in individual cells.

September 24, 2011

How Old Are Your Blues?

How Old Are Your Blues?

Cultural Conservation: At Spain's only remaining Islamic university, analytical techniques distinguish original pigments from those added in the subsequent six centuries.

September 17, 2011

Microscopy For Undergrad Chemists

Microscopy For Undergrad Chemists

New program offers advanced training and first four-year degree in chemical microscopy.

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Archive

2011

2010

Analytical SCENE

October, 2011

October 28, 2011

Speedy Homemade-Explosive Detector

Forensic Chemistry: A new method could increase the number of explosives detected by airport screeners.

October 27, 2011

Hair Reveals Source Of People's Exposure To Mercury

Toxic Exposure: Mercury isotopes in human hair illuminate dietary and industrial sources.

October 26, 2011

Why The Long Fat?

Cancer Biochemistry: Mass spectrometry follows the metabolism of very long fatty acids in cancer cells.

Shedding Nanoparticles

Materials Science: Chemists observe metal objects sloughing off ions to form nanoparticles.

Lab-On-A-Chip For Planets, Moons

Microfluidics: Automated chip is designed to detect extraterrestrial amino acids.

Hydrogenase Spills Secret

Crystallography reveals novel cluster behind oxygen tolerance, opening up new possibilities for fuel-cell applications.

Planet-Forming Disk Soaked In Cold Water

Cold water from ice grains add more to picture of solar system formation and water deposition.

October 25, 2011

Method Spots DNA Modifications On Single Strands

Epigenetics: Patterning approach may help researchers monitor DNA methylation in individual cells.

October 24, 2011

How Old Are Your Blues?

Cultural Conservation: At Spain's only remaining Islamic university, analytical techniques distinguish original pigments from those added in the subsequent six centuries.

October 19, 2011

Microscopy For Undergrad Chemists

New program offers advanced training and first four-year degree in chemical microscopy.

Identifying Modified Cells

Molecular Biology: Technique tags and enriches cells genetically altered by nucleases.

Detecting H2S In Vivo

Studies could lead to sensitive and selective analyses for tiny signaling agent.

Proteoglycan Is Sugar-Specific

Mass spec of highly purified polysaccharide chains reveals simplest proteoglycan has a defined sugar sequence.

October 18, 2011

With A Twist, Chip Measures Viral Loads

Medical Diagnostics: New device measures a wide range of concentrations of viral RNA in blood.

New Editor For Analytical Chemistry

Publishing: Jonathan Sweedler to take the helm.

October 17, 2011

One Chip To Sample Extraterrestrial Chemicals

Lab On A Chip: Microfluidic device analyzes amino acids from start to finish.

October 14, 2011

Municipal Wastewater Spreads Antibiotic Resistance

Water Treatment: Even with advanced filtration, a wastewater treatment plant releases antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

October 13, 2011

Tracking A Lake's Single-Celled Life

Biological Monitoring: Researchers watch changes in populations of microorganisms in lakes.

October 11, 2011

Raman Reveals Danger Inside Plastic Bottles

Forensic Chemistry: New method peers through plastic to find hidden explosives.

New Brominated Chemicals Detected In Gull Eggs

Environmental Pollutants: The contaminants may be degradation products of flame retardants.

Spotting Deadly Spores

Pathogens: Technique based on mass spectrometry can find anthrax in milk and soil.

October 10, 2011

Spying On Single Cells

Microfluidics: A test detects the activity of single enzymes associated with drug resistance in cancer cells.

Sniffing For Sea Mines

Explosives: A microfluidic device enables underwater TNT sensing.

Lipids Take Charge

Mass spectrometry propels the field of lipidomics.

Bacterial Messengers

Method encodes and decodes text messages.

Yardstick Measures Cysteines On The Move

Fate of one cysteine among many is detectable with atomic force microscopy.

Mass Spec Maps Disordered Proteins

Isotope-exchange technique requires little sample to probe ordering transition.

Method Optimizes Interfering RNA

High-throughput technique quickly evaluates possible RNA modifications.

October 06, 2011

New Method Isolates Membrane Proteins

Protein Purification: Technique separates proteins on a lipid bilayer.

October 04, 2011

Protein Signaling In Motion

Mass spectrometry uncovers a crucial tugging action involved in G protein activation.

Sour-To-Sweet Miracle Mechanism Revealed

Japanese researchers learn how African red berry's glycoprotein alters human taste.

October 03, 2011

Bisphenol A Is Ubiquitous In Receipts

Endocrine Disrupters: Researchers detect BPA in every receipt that they collected from seven U.S. cities.

Mapping Drugs In Human Tissue

Clinical Chemistry: Mass spectrometry imaging provides view of an inhaled drug in human lung tissue.

September, 2011

September 30, 2011

Skeletons Come To Light

Fluorescence Imaging: Monitoring cells as they dissolve bone may lead to disease treatments.

September 26, 2011

Analyzing Nuclear Processes

ACS Meeting News: Analytical chemists devise ways to watch radioactive streams.

September 22, 2011

Extreme Photoswitching

Microscopy: Fluorescent proteins that turn on and off many more times than usual improve superresolution methods.

Seeing Through Biological Tissue

New, inexpensive optical clearing formula makes tissue samples transparent to light.

Staining Makes Catalytic Sites Fluoresce

Imaging method correlates fluorescence intensity with catalytic activity in individual particles.

September 20, 2011

Plant Analysis Made Simple

Mass Spectrometry: Researchers use a quick jolt of electricity to ionize samples directly from plant tissue.

September 19, 2011

Seeing Inside Tears

Biomedical Assay: Using a microfluidic chip, a new method analyzes proteins in tears.

Clothing Sheds Microplastics Into Sea

Water Pollution: Washing synthetic fabrics may be a major source of plastic particles in the oceans.

September 16, 2011

Fast, Reliable Tool Characterizes Antibodies

Biotherapeutics: New method based on mass spectrometry could help drugmakers map antibody-antigen interactions.

September 14, 2011

Slower Than A Snail's Pace

Geochemistry: Scientists estimate that Mexico's giant gypsum crystals took up to 1 million years to reach today's size.

Bacterial Acid Trips

Chemical Biology: New technique reveals how pathogens endure our acidic stomachs.

Light Pulses Get Shorter

Dynamics: 'Light transients' will enable control of electrons on attosecond scale.

PerkinElmer Will Buy Caliper Life Sciences

Instrument maker PerkinElmer has agreed to acquire Caliper Life Sciences, a molecular and tissue imaging expert.

Frontier Scientific Purchases ASDI

Frontier Scientific has acquired the assets of ASDI in a bankruptcy auction.

Dating Silk

Minimally invasive mass spec method determines age of centuries-old fabrics.

RNA Analogs Fluoresce Brightly

Synthetic mimics can help probe properties of nucleic acids.

Ca2+ Indicators Show Their New Colors

Family of probe molecules brings a rainbow of colors to cellular imaging.

September 8, 2011

Device Tests Toxic Waters

Pollution: Genetically engineered bacteria could allow cheap detection of water contaminants.

Consumer Electronics Outrank Refrigerators As Contributors To Climate Change

Carbon Emissions: Laptops, televisions, and other devices emit more than household appliances do.

Silk Artworks Reveal Their Age

Textile Conservation: A minimally invasive technique can date silk textiles.

From Dust To Snow

ACS Meeting News: Study of atmospheric dust may herald changes in weather and climate forecasting.

Waters Follows A Narrow Course

Scientific instrument maker vows to stick with the separations and analysis businesses it knows best.

Heat-Seeking Division: TA Instruments Leverages Small Buyouts For Growth

Merck Millipore Will Acquire Amnis

Method Separates Hybrid Nanoparticles

ACS Meeting News: Chromatographic method purifies complex magnetic nanostructures.

One Label, Five Microscopies

ACS Meeting News: Metal nanoparticles can be used as universal probe for many imaging methods.

September 2, 2011

No Progress On Nitrosamine Levels In U.S. Cigarettes

ACS Meeting News: Amounts of two cancer-causing chemicals remain high in U.S. cigarettes, despite a longstanding ability to reduce them.

August, 2011

August 31, 2011

From Dust In Asia To Snow In California

ACS Meeting News: Field study may herald changes in weather and climate forecasting.

August 30, 2011

Asteroid Yields Its Secrets

Space Science: Rock particles show link with meteorites, solve weathering mysteries.

New Method Is Spot On

Microfluidics: Droplet-based method could help automate dried blood spot analysis.

Craft To Target Moon's Gravity

NASA mission aims to assemble the most detailed map ever of the moon's gravitational field.

Diagnostic Device Heads To Field

Microfluidics-based test for HIV and syphilis rivals lab-based tests.

Catalyst Atoms Pinpointed For Real

Chemists characterize the active edges of an industrial MoS2 desulfurization catalyst.

Multiple Bradykinin States Revealed

The peptide adopts at least 10 conformers in solution, explaining why its structure had only been partially characterized.

Two Zeolite Structures Solved

Two research groups use novel experimental and data analysis methods to reveal the structures of two distinctive zeolites.

August 29, 2011

Cheap, Simple Test Spots Protein-Protein Interactions

Biological Assay: Using graphene oxide, a new method could help researchers find peptide-based drugs.

August 26, 2011

New Device Monitors Oxygen Levels During Surgery

Medical Imaging: By measuring a proxy for blood flow, surgeons could make more-informed decisions.

August 24, 2011

Gold Nanoparticles Help Scientists Detect Growth-Promoting Drugs

Food Safety: New assay could detect illegal beta agonists in livestock.

August 23, 2011

Disease Protein's Mistaken Identity

Biochemistry: Biologists thought a-synuclein was an unfolded monomer, but new research reveals a tetramer.

NIH Moves Genomics Into Clinical Care

NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute will provide $25 million over the next four years to researchers in the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics network to show that a patient's genome can be linked to disease symptoms in their medical records to improve their care.

Handheld IR In?The Hangar

Boeing uses spectroscopy to monitor airplanes made of carbon-based composites.

Heat Defense: Navy Uses IR To Assess Heat Damage To Planes

Electronic Skin

Ultrathin devices cling to skin like temporary tattoos.

Nucleobases From Space

Exotic purines present the strongest evidence yet that meteorites could have delivered DNA building blocks to Earth.

Nanoelectrochemical Maps Make A Debut

A scanning probe microscopy method helps visualize electrochemical hotspots on electrode surfaces.

August 19, 2011

Corralling Llama Antibodies For Small Molecules

Antibody Production: New technique isolates unusually stable antibodies against a potential endocrine disrupter.

August 18, 2011

Fishing Out Dilute Disease Biomarkers

Medical Diagnostics: Gel microparticles detect sub-femtomolar concentrations of microRNAs.

August 17, 2011

Lighting The Way

Former PerkinElmer unit Excelitas pledges to strengthen its ties to the instrumentation industry.

Bruker Investigates Bribery Charges

After receiving of an anonymous tip, scientific instrument maker Bruker has confirmed that its optics subsidiary, which makes spectrometers, made improper payments to Chinese officials.

New Detector For Time-Of-Flight Mass Spec

Nanomembrane design offers enhanced sensitivity to heavy ions.

August 11, 2011

Animal's Amino Acids Go Unnatural

Non-canonical amino acids incorporated into multicellular organism.

August 10, 2011

Singling Out Cells

Cellular Imaging: Microfluidic chip traps thousands of cells at once to help researchers catch a glimpse of rare cellular events.

Instrumental Efforts

Entrepreneurs take big risks to bring the latest scientific tools to market.

A Puzzle Named Bengu Sezen

A historic case of fraud in the chemistry community leaves many questions and issues unresolved.

Scrutinizing Sunscreens

Lotions containing inorganic nanoparticles draw attention of toxicologists and ire of some consumer groups.

Biopharma Joins The Doping Battle

Companies team up with international drug agency to curb athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs.

EPA Requires More Chemical Data

Chemical manufacturers will have to supply more data to EPA about the quantity and use of substances they make, under a rule unveiled last week.

DESI Tackles Large Proteins

Mass spec technique known for analyzing small molecules can now be used to analyze proteins as large as 150 kilodaltons.

Solar-Cell Layer Comes Into View

Microscopy method reveals the location and morphology of electron donor, acceptor, and blended regions in photoactive layers.

Screening Drugs for Antimalarials

High-throughput screening and gene profiling of existing drugs help identify new drug combinations to combat malaria.

Molecular Balances Measure Aliphatic CH-pi Interactions

A family of conformationally flexible molecules gives chemists a means for measuring weak interactions in solution.

August 8, 2011

Method Could Resolve Nanosilver's Cloudy Toxicity Picture

Nanomaterials: Cloud point extraction could help distinguish between silver nanoparticles and silver ions.

August 1, 2011

Proteins Reveal Their Secrets Under Pressure

NMR Spectroscopy: New device allows chemists to apply pressure to proteins during NMR experiments.

Fluorescent Labels Color Code RNA

Genetically encoded labels, previously available only for tagging proteins, are now possible for RNAs.

DHS Scraps Radiation-Monitoring Program

The Department of Homeland Security has decided to terminate its troubled advanced spectroscopic portal radiation detection program, which was launched five years ago to scan cargo for radioactive materials at the nation's ports and borders.

July, 2011

July 29, 2011

Probing Enantiomer Purity

Stereochemical Analysis: New method quickly reveals the composition of mixtures of enantiomers of carboxylic acids.

July 27, 2011

Sighting Signaling

Biochemistry: Collaboration enables the first view of a receptor with its G protein.

July 26, 2011

A Cell Phone Counts Cells

Medical Diagnostics: With a simple attachment, a cell phone can run diagnostic tests for diseases such as cancer.

A Personal Meter For Everything

Sensors: System allows glucose monitors to measure other analytes.

The (Synthetic) Nose Knows

Bioelectronics: Chemical sensor combines olfactory proteins and carbon nanotubes to mimic biology.

Roche Buys Oncology Diagnostics Firm

Roche has agreed to acquire MTM Laboratories, a privately held German firm that develops in vitro diagnostics with a focus on early detection of cervical cancer.

Biomarkers Wanted

Discovery of potential diagnostic tools has been plagued with problems.

More Than Just Cancer: Some Biomarkers Move Toward Validation

Fishing For Biomarkers

Electrical DNA Sequencing Unveiled

Method exploits semiconductor manufacturing technology for low-cost genome analysis.

July 19, 2011

Frog Skin Packs A Chemical Punch

Chemical Defense: Proteomic analysis of tree frog secretions reveals both salves and weapons akin to snake venom.

July 18, 2011

Testing Gulf Seafood

After the oil spill, analytical protocols to assess contaminants in seafood found few problems, but the public and some scientists are not reassured.

Instrumentation: Firms Help Meet Demand For Equipment

Instrumentation companies supplied the gas and liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and detection technologies used for seafood safety testing.

ITT To Acquire Water Monitoring Firm YSI

ITT has been acquiring companies to build its ITT Analytics business.

Research Companies Join With Nonprofits

The Innovative Vector Control Consortium has signed an agreement with the contract research firm Scynexis.

Defense Gives Grants For Lab Equipment

The Department of Defense has made 165 awards totaling $37.8 million to 83 universities to buy research instrumentation.

Modernizing Toxicity Tests

EPA inches toward high-throughput in vitro assays to reduce cost, time of chemical safety assessments.

Preserving Plastic Art

Chemistry of polymer-based creations presents unique problems for conservators.

Examining Explosives

High Explosives Applications Facility researchers tackle science for national security.

Cocrystal Engineering Sorts Out Ladderanes

Strategy borrowed from protein chemistry helps pin down elusive isomeric structures of small organic molecules.

July 15, 2011

Solving The Mystery Of Sugar Chain Growth

Assay based on mass spectrometry reveals mechanistic secrets of a polymer-building enzyme.

July 14, 2011

Meals Modify Proteins

Proteomics: Levels of protein acetylation may change in response to feasting or fasting.

July 11, 2011

Detecting Crude Oil In Water

Water Pollution: A special type of mass spectrometry could help monitor the amount of oil discharged into oceans.

Mediator Gives Up A Few Secrets

Structural Biochemistry: View of transcription complex could aid mechanistic studies, drug discovery.

Ancient Pigments Leave Metal Clues

Metallic traces on fossils hint at the shade of feathers adorning extinct birds and dinosaurs.

Iridium Illuminates Nuclei Of Living Cells

A metal complex turns on and lights up nuclei by binding to histidine rather than to DNA like other imaging agents.

Hydrogen Peroxide Detected In Space

H2O2 is spotted in interstellar space for the first time, a finding that could refine astrochemical models involving H2O and O2.

July 7, 2011

Analyzing The Dead Sea Scrolls' Provenance

Cultural Analysis: Scientists think that X-ray fluorescence could identify the geographical origin of these ancient texts.

Agilent Forms Academic Alliance

Agilent Technologies and the National University of Singapore Environmental Research Institute have formed an alliance in environmental science and engineering.

Virtual Drug Screen Targets Flexible RNAs

A technique to find compounds that interact with specific RNA conformations has led to an agent with in vivo anti-HIV activity.

Superresolution Sharpens Images In Live Organisms

Nanoscale microscopy imaging techniques can now give researchers pictures from inside living multicellular organisms, expanding on previous work using superresolution methods to image cells in culture conditions.

July 5, 2011

Tracking Cigarette Chemicals Puff By Puff

Air Quality: Technique separates, identifies, and quantifies smoke compounds as they change.

Archive: 2011 | 2010

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