We’re looking ahead to the future of analytical chemistry, from monitoring the planet from satellites, diagnosing cancer quickly and easily from small blood samples, to where the discipline itself is heading. And with a century and half passing since the Society of Public Analysts was founded, what does the future hold for this important role?
Instruments in space have studied the planet’s atmosphere and surface, and are now being joined by powerful new ones, finds Andy Extance
Testing small amounts of blood for the presence of disease markers could revolutionise how we detect cancer. Clare Sansom reports
Analytical techniques have come a long way, but what does the future hold? Rachel Brazil asks the experts what they’d like to see
As the Association of Public Analysts winds up, Duncan Campbell reflects on the continued importance of the profession
New and better tools are pushing back boundaries and changing the world
Failing to mix reactions in heterogeneous or industrial systems could cause numerous issues and might even be dangerous, preprint claims
Study serves as a reminder that machine learning models are only as good as the data they are trained on
Huge datasets that would be a valuable training aid for AI are being lost
Unpublished images should be brought to light to aid science communication and speed up discovery
A personal connection to the 2025 Nobel prize in chemistry
Vibrational spectroscopy’s intuitive insight into molecular structure was initially shunned by chemists
The Nobel laureate on the joys of entering a developing field, and the century of vision
Materials scientists warn that raw data and replication studies are needed to tackle the looming threat of near-undetectable AI fraud
Scientists, researchers, engineers, industry leaders and innovators gather for UK’s must-attend industry event
The acid dissociation constants for some PFAS are significantly lower than past metrics have indicated, with implications for their persistence and spread
The approach combines carbon liquid cells and rapid data acquisition to study solvated molecules at room temperature
Join us on 5 November to learn new ways to improve data consistency with mass spectrometry
Join us on 23 October to discover how microbial antibiotic exposure triggers lipidomic changes, offering insight into how lipids contribute to resistance mechanisms
Analytical chemistry can tell us what our ancestors ate thousands – or even millions – of years ago. Rachel Brazil gets her teeth into the evidence
Following the recent release of journal impact factors, we round up the leading journals across 10 chemistry fields
The effect lasts only a few picoseconds but demonstrates a way to manipulate the optical properties of materials
Complexes containing hydroxide, water and dinitrogen ligands detected as researchers probe chemistry on the edge of the actinide series
Some obsolete lab equipment is quickly replaced, while other items are stubbornly persistent. What modern tech will survive to the 2060s?
Environmental Protection Agency will review decisions made during emergency response
TBAB hydrate is the most widely used semiclathrate hydrate, with potential uses in heat storage and air conditioning
Three analytical chemists explain how turning powerful techniques towards ordinary objects inspires public engagement with science
But those values are constantly refined