Latest Content

SciX 2026, the annual conference presented by the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS), ran October 4–9, 2026, at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada. The program spanned atomic and molecular spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, chemometrics, and bioanalysis. This report follows the meeting day by day, from Monday's clinical Raman plenaries to Friday's closing talks, drawing on the online program and Spectroscopy coverage of award winners, highlighting efforts to move Raman, SERS, LIBS, and single-particle ICP-MS toward clinical, environmental, and field use.

According to Thermo Fisher Scientific, their ARL X’TRA Pro diffractometer is designed for around-the-clock quantitative phase analysis of 50 to more than 100 samples per day.

At SciX, Alessandro De Giacomo explains how a 35-member international jury chose three papers: one on correct ICCD use and two applications using LIBS and LA-ICP-MS. He also explains what the selections say about the field.

At SciX 2026, Siddhartha Das explains how graphene can be used to show how atom-level interactions between ions and water decide what passes through a membrane and what stays behind.

Four finalists for the FACSS Innovation Award presented on the afternoon of October 8, 2026, at SciX 2026. Their work spanned drone-mounted laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), a touch-and-sound virtual reality system for blind scientists, polarized infrared (IR) imaging of shape memory polymers, and an ultrasound-activated plasmonic nanoplatform aimed at Parkinson’s disease.

At SciX 2026, Marc Porter explained why surface-enhanced Raman scattering can outperform fluorescence assays. He also described how a protein-denaturing step rescued his team’s tuberculosis test from a major loss in sensitivity.

At SciX 2026, Alessandro De Giacomo explains why laser–matter interaction deserves more attention and how nanoparticle size forces a trade-off between sensitivity and practical tagging.

At SciX 2026, Thursday morning’s “New Challenges in Chemometrics” session questioned long-held assumptions, from reliance on autonomous model selection to the restriction of spectral data to real numbers.

The inaugural Peter Griffiths Award winner discusses deep low-frequency Raman measurements through wax and what remains before clinical breast-imaging use.

Top content published this week include an examination of how near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is being changed by machine learning and the final part in a panel discussion on spectroscopy education.

The recipient of the ACS Award in Spectrochemical Analysis discusses how surface-enhanced Raman scattering became a practical diagnostic readout and how close it is to clinical use.

A candid plenary on the incentives shaping academic science was followed by an afternoon of talks spanning flowing SERS detection, historical textiles, maple syrup, pathogen immunoassays, and electrochemical Raman microscopy.

The 2026 AES Mid-Career Award recipient explains how molecular-scale simulations of polyelectrolyte brush-grafted nanochannels are revealing unexpected flow behavior.