Top content published this week include a panel discussion with five SpecAcademy instructors and a feature article on Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy.
|Articles|August 28, 2009
A New Method for Identifying Sculptures
Researchers from Northwestern University and the Art Institute of Chicago used a form of optical emission spectroscopy to determine the metal composition of 62 modern sculptures.
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Researchers from Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) and the Art Institute of Chicago used a form of optical emission spectroscopy to determine the metal composition of 62 bronze sculptures cast in Paris. Their method may be a way to identify, date, and authenticate sculptures that do not bear foundry marks.
The sculptures studied are from the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and include works by Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, and Rodin.
This accomplishment marks the first comprehensive survey of the alloy composition of a large number of cast bronze sculptures by major European artists from the first half of the 20th century.
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In this Q&A, we provide an overview of what the latest “What’s Nu” covered, which includes new research in environmental analysis and clinical analysis.
How has spectroscopy training changed? A recent panel discussion explored this topic, discussing how SpecAcademy can widen access without losing the value of hands-on instruction.
How has spectroscopy education evolved over the years?
FT-IR spectroscopy, long treated as a mature bench technique for confirming a carbonyl stretch or fingerprinting a polymer, has quietly become one of chemistry’s most versatile discovery engines: it now infers molecular structure straight from a spectrum without a reference library, resolves chemistry tens of nanometers wide, and screens a fingerstick of blood for disease in minutes. The last five years of published research show FT-IR moving from a confirmatory tool into a predictive, autonomous, and field-ready analytical platform.
In this panel discussion, five SpecAcademy instructors examined why spectroscopy expertise has declined and how SpecAcademy aims to rebuild it through curated, fundamentals-based education suited to increasingly complex analytical work.
A recent roundtable discussion with the SpecAcademy instructors explored why spectroscopy expertise has eroded and how SpecAcademy aims to rebuild it.
The agreement gives North American customers a stocked, domestic source for InGaAs PIN photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes from the Scottish manufacturer.
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