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Top articles published this week include a preview of an upcoming presentation at the American Chemical Society (ACS) 2026 Fall Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has moved from the laboratory to the field, offering rapid, in situ elemental analysis of minerals, rocks, soils, and meteorites with minimal sample preparation. This practical tutorial covers LIBS instrumentation, field sampling best practices, quantification methods, common pitfalls, and emerging applications in geoscience.

For 170 years, spectroscopists have built quantitative analysis on only one number pulled from every spectrum they ever recorded, discarding its inseparable twin. New dispersion-theory and complex-valued chemometric methods recover that missing half, the refractive index, and in favorable systems cut calibration error by as much as an order of magnitude.

Cellular autofluorescence often masks target signals in time-resolved fluorescence imaging, and metal-based phosphors that could solve this raise toxicity and cost concerns. Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials offer a metal-free alternative with long emission lifetimes, and early studies show promise despite remaining challenges with quenching, solubility, and spectral purity.

Nearly every diabetic on earth still stabs a finger to measure their blood sugar, but a small army of lasers, infrared beams, and machine-learning algorithms is quietly plotting to end that ritual for good. This review tracks the photons chasing glucose through skin, from near-infrared reflectance to Raman fingerprints, and asks why the “needle-free” promise keeps slipping just out of reach.

How is the water quality in Biscayne Bay? A talk at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2026 Meeting will explore this.

A technical white paper deriving the classical least squares (CLS) and weighted least squares (WLS) models and showing how generalized least squares (GLS) and extended least squares (ELS) extend CLS to provide clutter suppression for characterized interference signals in spectroscopic and hyperspectral measurements.

Handheld spectroscopy tools are being used to identify food fraud.

HORIBA has launched Partica, a laser diffraction and dynamic image analysis particle size and shape analyzer for advanced materials research and quality control.

Spectrometers that once filled an entire lab bench now fit in a coat pocket, and they are quietly reshaping how fentanyl gets identified on a roadside, how counterfeit cashmere gets caught on a loading dock, and how a five-hundred-year-old painting gets authenticated without ever leaving the wall. This review tracks five years of coverage from Spectroscopy alongside the broader literature to show how handheld Raman, FT-IR, NIR, and XRF instruments moved from laboratory novelty to field necessity.

This study used molecular spectroscopic techniques to characterize fibers found at a crime scene and those from the suspects.

Young spectroscopists need to know how to work with instruments and acquire the necessary scientific knowledge required in their field, but equally important are skills such as writing and communication.

A plain-language glossary of 40 spectroscopic and elemental analytical methods—FTIR, Raman, ICP-MS, XRF, atomic absorption, and more—with verified references for lab professionals, students, and instrument buyers.