Nanoplastics at lofty heights

Researchers detect microscopic plastic particles on alpine glaciers with the help of mountaineers

18-Feb-2025 - Nanoplastics - plastic particles smaller than 1 µm - are widely dispersed because of their low weight. A research team coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) has now published an article in Scientific Reports that shows the extent to which glaciers at an altitude of ...

Innovative Methods for Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry

Fresenius Award for Kathrin Breuker

12-Feb-2025 - The German Chemical Society (GDCh) is awarding Associate Professor Dr. Kathrin Breuker, University of Innsbruck, the Fresenius Award. She will receive the award, which includes a gold medal and prize money of 7,500 euros, for special services to analytical chemistry. With her scientific work, ...

Advanced Automation Technologies agrees to acquire GERSTEL

Expanding automated sample preparation capabilities

26-Nov-2024 - Advanced Automation Technologies, a platform of laboratory-automation brands backed by global investment firm Battery Ventures, announced an agreement to acquire GERSTEL GmbH & Co. KG and its international subsidiaries. GERSTEL, headquartered in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany and with sales ...

Waters Corporation Opens State-of-the-Art Precision Manufacturing Facility in Longbridge, UK

Waters triples manufacturing footprint while increasing precision machining and metrology capacity to support future growth

15-Nov-2024 - Waters Corporation announced the official opening of its new 45,000 square foot manufacturing facility at the Longbridge Business Park in the West Midlands. The new facility more than triples existing operations and enhances the company's machining capacity to produce critical components for ...

Data archiving with molecules

Reading synthetic polymers as data storage more efficiently

30-Oct-2024 - More and more data needs to be stored, often long-term. Synthetic polymers are an alternative to conventional storage media, as they retain stored information with significantly lower space and energy requirements. However, mass spectrometric data readout limits the length and thus the storage ...

Effects of chemical mixtures: Neurotoxic effects add up

Study demonstrates for the first time the toxicological relevance of chemical mixtures as they occur in humans

22-Oct-2024 - Chemicals are omnipresent today: they enter our bodies through food, air or the skin. But how do these complex mixtures of chemicals affect our health? In a study published in the journal Science, a research team from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) has shown that chemicals ...

Sulfurous acid H2SO3 - and it does exist

World's first proof under atmospheric conditions calls textbook opinion into question

05-Sep-2024 - Once again, the atmosphere amazes us with its diverse chemical processes. For the first time, researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) in Leipzig have demonstrated the existence of sulfurous acid (H2SO3) under atmospheric conditions in the gas phase. The results ...

Evidence stacks up for poisonous books containing toxic dyes

21-Aug-2024 - If you come across brightly colored, cloth-bound books from the Victorian era, you might want to handle them gently, or even steer clear altogether. Some of their attractive hues come from dyes that could pose a health risk to readers, collectors or librarians. The latest research on these ...

British chemist is honoured for her groundbreaking work in mass spectrometry

​​Dame Carol Robinson opened a new era for protein analysis and drug development

27-Jun-2024 - British scientist Dame Carol Robinson, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and a trailblazer in the field of mass spectrometry, has dedicated her career to exploring the molecular makeup of proteins within their native environments. Her pioneering work has paved the way for ...

Four-legged, dog-like robot ‘sniffs’ hazardous gases in inaccessible environments

Portable mass spectrometry for on-site detection of hazardous volatile organic compounds via robotic extractive sampling

12-Jun-2024 - Nightmare material or truly man’s best friend? A team of researchers equipped a dog-like quadruped robot with a mechanized arm that takes air samples from potentially treacherous situations, such as an abandoned building or fire. The robot dog walks samples to a person who screens them for ...