Insights into the Nanoworld: Volker Deckert Receives the 2025 Lamb Award

A Pioneer in Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

31-Jan-2025 - How can structures be made visible that are far smaller than what conventional light microscopes can capture? With tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS), Volker Deckert has established a method that provides precise insights into the nanoworld of molecules—without the need for markers. For his ...

The Secret Life of Catalysts

New Discoveries in Chemical Reactions

30-Jan-2025 - Scientists from the Interface Science Department of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in collaboration with beamline scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin have made an advancement in the field of electrocatalysis. Their latest research, published in the journal Nature ...

Are tattoos safe?

Tattoo inks in Europe are mislabeled and some contain banned ingredients

08-Oct-2024 - If you plan on getting a tattoo, consider this: A new study from Binghamton University, State University of New York looking at green and blue tattoo inks from Europe found that most contained ingredients that are not listed on the label – and some contained ingredients that are outright ...

Research team decodes symbiotic interactions in marine algae using raman spectroscopy

Implications for biotechnology and environmental protection

02-Oct-2024 - In a recent study, researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena have shown how they can non-invasively and non-destructively investigate the growth and interactions of the green alga Ulva and its bacterial community using ...

Pocket-sized invention revolutionizes ability to detect harmful materials

The low-cost cellphone-based Raman spectrometer system can make identifications of unknown biological molecules within minutes

18-Jul-2024 - Imagine knowing what berry or mushroom is safe to eat during a hike or swiftly detecting pathogens in a hospital setting that would traditionally require days to identify. Identification and detection of drugs, chemicals and biological molecules invisible to the human eye can be made possible ...

Gold membrane coaxes secrets out of surfaces

Thousand-fold signal amplification

26-Jun-2024 - Using a special wafer-thin gold membrane, ETH researchers have made it significantly easier to study surfaces. The membrane makes it possible to measure properties of surfaces that are inaccessible to conventional methods. “Surfaces were invented by the devil” - this quote is attributed to the ...

Real-time detection of infectious disease viruses by searching for molecular fingerprinting

POSTECH and UNIST develop breakthrough technology for wide-ranging and ultra-sensitive active nano-spectral sensor, surpassing current limitations

22-Apr-2024 - A research team consisting of Professor Kyoung-Duck Park and Taeyoung Moon and Huitae Joo, PhD candidates, from the Department of Physics at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has engineered “broadband nanogap gold spectroscopic sensor” using a flexible material capable of ...

analytica 2024: Food analysis for sustainable nutrition

From PFAS to microplastics: focus on new harmful substances

16-Nov-2023 - From meat-free cold cuts to vegan salmon, the food market is changing. More and more consumers want to eat sustainably, but without sacrificing the taste of familiar products. “Modern analytical methods play a key role in the development of alternative foods, which is why analytica is ...

Novel Raman technique breaks through 50 years of frustration

04-Aug-2023 - Raman spectroscopy — a chemical analysis method that shines monochromatic light onto a sample and records the scattered light that emerges — has caused frustration among biomedical researchers for more than half a century. Due to the heat generated by the light, live proteins are nearly destroyed ...

Tracing invisible particles

Automated analysis of microplastics

28-Jul-2023 - How high are concentrations of microplastics in the environment, in our drinking water or in foods? Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed an automated analysis method for the identification and quantification of particles. Microplastics are everywhere in the ...