Bruker Corporation has created a Chemical Analysis Division within its Bruker Daltonics subsidiary. The new Chemical Analysis Division will be managed by Collin D'Silva as division president, and will be based in Fremont, CA, USA.

Duquesne University, USA, and Agilent Technologies have established a Centre of Excellence (COE) for mass spectrometry at the university. The facility enables a wide range of research in the life sciences and environmental analysis.

Bruker Corporation and Agilent Technologies have announced that they have entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement. Pursuant to this agreement, Bruker will acquire certain product lines of Varian Inc., which Agilent has committed to divest in connection with obtaining regulatory approval for Agilent's previously announced acquisition of Varian.

PerkinElmer, Inc. has agreed to purchase the remaining interest of its joint venture in ICP-MS and related assets from Danaher Corporation. Danaher acquired this joint venture stake and these assets as part of its acquisition of MDS Inc.'s Analytical Technologies business.

The purchase of the remaining 50% of the joint venture and related assets will provide PerkinElmer with full ownership of the joint venture and its ICP-MS product line.

John Roush, president, Environmental Health, PerkinElmer, said, "The global population is increasingly vulnerable to safety threats from toxic elements such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic affecting the quality of our water and food supplies. Our continued commitment and innovation in ICP-MS will provide our customers with solutions that support the analysis of component elements, trace elements or contaminants in samples of interest, leading to improved products and applications for their end markets - and ultimately to better outcomes for human and environmental health."

He added, "The consolidation of the joint venture will reinforce our market leadership position while further demonstrating our commitment to the ICP-MS product line and the sustained development of this critical technology. Customers will benefit from our ability to get products to market faster, as well as to better align our offering with market needs."

The U-Series is a new style of glass concentric nebuliser from Glass Expansion. It provides improved performance and is very simple to use. The main benefits are that the sample channel is uniform from the entry point to the tip, which helpsavoid blockages; since there is nowhere for sample to be trapped, washout time is reduced and sample throughput increased; the VitriCone construction incorporates a precision-machined heavy glass capillary which resists vibration and delivers precision; Glass Expansion’s proprietary UniFit sample connector provides a simple connection with no dead volume. The U-Series is compatible with all ICP-OES and ICP-MS models.

The European Commission has cleared, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of Varian Inc. by Agilent Technologies Inc., both US companies, by way of purchase of shares. The decision is conditional upon the divestment of Agilent's entire micro/portable gas chromatography instrument business and Varian's entire laboratory gas chromatography, triple quadrupole gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry instrument businesses. In view of the remedies proposed, the Commission has concluded that the operation would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.

Niagara Plus accessory for ICP-OES and ICP-MS equipment. It utilises flow injection technology to reduce the laboratory's environmental footprint, reduce operating costs and improve sample throughput. Benefits include reduced cost of argon and consumables, lower power consumption and less waste, reduced analysis time, automatic internal standard and low carryover with the sample not contacting any peristaltic pump tubing.

Agilent Technologies have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Varian, paying $1.5 billion. As well as adding $1 billion in annual sales to Agilent’s existing $5.8 billion, it significantly expands the range of technologies in Agilent’s portfolio. Varian are particularly strong in NMR, imaging and vacuum technologies, but also can offer a number of atomic and molecular spectroscopies.

Michael J. Watts,a* Mark Buttona,b and Gawen R.T. JenkinbaBritish Geological Survey, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, UK. E-mail: mwatts@bgs.ac.ukbDepartment of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

Introduction

The health implications of chronic exposure to arsenic are well known, with populations exposed on a worldwide scale, the majority of which are in locations such as Bangladesh, South-East Asia and South America. Serious health problems have been associated with drinking water high in arsenic, including various cancers, vascular disease and skin keratoses.

Bruce Yardley and David BanksSchool of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Introduction

The whole natural cycle of our planet depends on processes going on beneath our feet, which create magmas, move tectonic plates, raise mountains and drive the continual recycling of rock materials. That this happens at all reflects the presence of water deep in the Earth’s crust.

Lambda Advanced Technology has announced the availability of the new “speedwave four” microwave digestion system from Berghof. Featuring Berghof's contact-free temperature measurement system and contact-free pressure measurement system for all sample vessels, the system also has a new controller which includes network compatibility via an Ethernet interface. Used for the preparation of samples for AA, ICP or ICP/MS analysis, it offers digestion control using microwave sample heating to give reduced digestion times and high sample throughput rates. A temperature up to 260°C and operating pressures of up to 190 bar enables a wide range of digestions to be carried out from routine applications in food, environment and medical to hard-to-digest inorganic samples. A choice of digestion vessels allows multiple digestions to be carried out simultaneously.Lambda Advanced Technology LtdIssue: 20/06 RSN:

Frank Vanhaecke and Luc MoensDepartment of Analytical Chemistry, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281–S12, BE-9000 Ghent, Belgium. E-mail: Frank.Vanhaecke@UGent.be

Introduction

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was introduced commercially in 1983 as a very sensitive analytical technique to be deployed for (ultra)trace element analysis. Compared to the previously existing techniques of atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and ICP-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), the main advantages offered by ICP-MS over these techniques were its pronounced multi-element capabilities and substantially higher detection power, respectively.

Cerno Bioscience, in co-operation with Dr Vladimir Tolstikov of the Genome Centre, UC Davis, has launched the MassWorks sCLIPS for use with high resolution FT-ICR mass spectrometers. By using Cerno's calibration techniques, users of high mass accuracy instruments can improve results of formula identification and obtain higher quality, reproducible data through accurate line-shape calibration. The sCLIP technology, when applied to FT-ICP MS data, corrects the instrument line shape and enables exact isotope modelling when comparing the MS response of an unknown ion against theoretically calculated responses for all possible candidate formulae. One of the benefits of the approach is that it requires no known calibration ions and, instead, utilises the fully-resolved mono-isotopic peak of the unknown ion itself for the line-shape calibration.Cerno BioscienceIssue: 20/04 RSN:

PerkinElmer have introduced their ExoAnalytix initiative. This is initially aimed at food and consumer product safety, water quality and sustainable energy development. The initiative will combine application-focussed solutions with information from leading scientists, industry experts and government. www.perkinelmer.com/ecoanalytix

Peak Scientific has been awarded with the Royal Bank of Scotland Award for International Trade. www.peakscientific.com

PerkinElmer, with Elemental Scientific, are offering integrated sample introduction systems designed to improve throughput when making measurements under EPA Methods 200.7 and 200.8 analysis, which focus on the determination of metal concentration in drinking water and other environmental applications. The system reduces non-productive time segments of the analysis, including uptake, stabilisation and rinse times. ESI's Sample-Changer-Fast system fully integrates with PerkinElmer's inorganic spectrometers and is offered with PerkinElmer's Elan ICP-MS and Optima ICP instrumentation.PerkinElmerIssue: 20/01 RSN:

In order to measure the concentration of different species, they need to be separated using chromatography then detected using ICP-MS or ICP OES. Glass Expansion has released a special nebuliser with a capillary sample inlet arm plus an LC fittings kit to allow quick and easy connection of an LC to an ICP spectrometer. SeaSpray, MicroMist and Conikal versions of the new nebuliser are available to suit all common models of ICP-MS and ICP-OES. The kits can also be configured to interface to all common LC outputs.Glass ExpansionIssue: 20/01 RSN:

Agilent Technologies has announced that its 7500 series inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer is now fully integrated with the company's OpenLAB enterprise content management (ECM) system. This allows the instruments to be adopted in a range of regulated pharmaceutical QA/QC labs that have installed the system. OpenLAB ECM is a scalable operating system for instruments and for all formats of laboratory information. Data from Agilent ChemStation data software for ICP-MS can now be automatically uploaded in the ECM system.Agilent Technologies EuropeIssue: 20/01 RSN:

Thermo Fisher has announced the addition of a new kit for coupling a gas chromatograph to their high resolution ICP- MS Element 2 and Element XR. Designed to enable scientists to use a high-resolution magnetic sector field ICP-MS as a detector for GC, the kit extends traditional ICP-MS capabilities for elemental speciation analysis of volatile compounds.Thermo Fisher ScientificIssue: 19/05 RSN: