Bottled water has evolved from a trendy luxury to a global consumer staple, with significant growth projected by 2012. In the U.S., consumption has soared, with safety concerns and substitution driving its popularity. Developing nations also rely on bottled water for safety. This study aims to address debated issues surrounding BPA and phthalate exposure in consumer water sources: 1. Are BPA and phthalates present in bottled water? 2. Does exposure to high temperatures increase leaching of BPA or phthalates? 3. Are levels in municipal or filtered water significantly different from bottled water?
Top content published this week include a panel discussion with five SpecAcademy instructors and a feature article on Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy.
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.
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.
The agreement gives North American customers a stocked, domestic source for InGaAs PIN photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes from the Scottish manufacturer.