Photonics Media publishes article on Technological Synergies Move Spectroscopy Out of the Lab
As portable and hand-held spectrometers continue to trend up, manufacturers face new challenges in analysis and support.
FAROOQ AHMED, SCIENCE WRITER, Photonics Media
Spurred by manufacturing advancements over the past decade, lasers, sensors, and imaging devices have become more compact and reliable. This progress has allowed spectroscopy to grow into new and diverse fields. The tabletop semiconductor laser, the benchtop FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) and hand-held x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometers, and the advent of silicon photonics are opening new areas of inquiry and industry — often for individuals untrained in spectroscopy.
Protein structure
One area in which this convergence of technologies can be seen is spectroscopy for protein structure determination. The field itself is not new and dates back at least to Nobel laureate Kurt Wüthrich’s work in the 1970s using NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy to investigate biological macromolecules. More recently, IR and FTIR spectroscopy have allowed structural biologists to uncover the secondary structure of proteins of nearly any size.
