Analytica set to grow in 2000

The organisers of Analytica 2000, Messe München, have noticed a considerable increase in the number of exhibitors booking for the event. The increase seems to be coming mainly from new exhibitors, companies from abroad and companies in the biotechnology sector.

The scientific conference held alongside the exhibition will, for the first time, will be held at the ultra-modern International Congress Center Munich. The conference focuses on presentations and reports on the latest innovations as well as the interaction between theory and industrial and laboratory practice. The four main categories covered by the conference are: Analysis Techniques and Applications, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Analysis, Medical Laboratory Diagnostics and Biochemical and Molecular-Biology Analysis.

Analytica is being held in Munich from 11 to 14 April. info@messe-muenchen.de, www.analytica.de.

Drug discovery report

Strategic Directions International has published its latest Market Analyses & Perspectives (MAP) research report entitled Lab Automation: The Dramatic Impact of Drug Discovery. This report provides a picture of the current market for various laboratory automation techniques and includes a forecast up to 2003. Automation products discussed in the report include microplate readers, microplate auxiliary equipment, diluters/dispensers, XYZ workstations, organic synthesisers, automated solid phase extraction apparatus, robotic stackers/arms, integrated robotic platforms and software.

Liquid handlers, the largest segment, generated world-wide revenues of $465 million in 1998. Annual growth is forecast at roughly 15% per year for the next five years, contributing to a total lab automation market of approximately $2.1 billion by 2003. Driven by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries’ focus on high-throughput screening and combinatorial chemistry methods, demand for liquid handlers has experienced renewed growth in recent years.

Although liquid handlers currently account for the largest segment, the fastest growth is expected to come from software. Specifically, cheminformatics software and integrated automation software are anticipated to grow at over 20% per year for the next five years.

Due to benefits such as higher throughput, fewer error-prone tasks and more reproducible results, many industries find laboratory automation an attractive investment. Accordingly, this renewed interest in lab automation has put it on a new growth curve. The pharmaceutical industry will continue to be the largest and fastest growing sector with demand expected to exceed $700 million by 2003.

As well as the the products mentioned above, secondary screening instruments such as HPLC, MS and NMR are also discussed and quantified in relation to their role in drug discovery applications. Additionally the market is segmented by geographical region and industry. sdi_europe@strategic-directions.com, www.strategic-directions.com.

Williams–Wright Award

The 2000 Williams–Wright Award will be made to John Reffner of SensIR Technologies at Pittcon. The Award is made by the Coblentz Society to deserving industrial spectroscopists, and is made for John Reffner’s work in the development of infrared microspectroscopy. This includes confocal sample masking, mapping stages, view-through apertures, compression cells, micro-ATR objectives, small-element diamond ATR, grazing incidence objectives, transparent masks, infinity corrected optical systems, single element confocal sample masking and simultaneous viewing and IR analysis.

John Reffner, Williams–Wright Award winner for 2000.

John Reffner worked at B.F. Goodrich, W.C. McCrone Associates, American Cyanamid and Spectra-Tech, before joining SensIR Technologies in 1998.

MS unravels the origin of emeralds

The origin of many emeralds belonging to the treasures of antiquity is still poorly known. This is particularly true of the so-called “old mine” emeralds, which Indian merchants traded around the world from the XVIth century. A joint team from the IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, ex-ORSTOM) and the CRPG-CNRS (Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques de Nancy) have used isotope ratio mass spectrometry to authenticate the source of the emeralds. The ratio between ¹⁸O and ¹⁶O has been measured using an ion microprobe directly on one of the emerald surfaces. The isotopic ratios have been determined for the most important mines in the world—62 deposits in 19 countries. Since the ion microprobe only makes a hole a few mm across and a few nm deep, the quality of the gems remains unaltered.

The analysis has been applied to a sample of nine emeralds, whose histories cover a long period, from Gallo–Roman times to the XVIIIth century. The results obtained call into question certain assumptions concerning the history of this precious stone and have enabled researchers to trace more accurately the emerald trade routes set up over the centuries.

Up to now it was considered that the mines of Egypt, exploited by the Pharaohs (between 3000 and 1500 BC) and the ones at Habachtal (Austria), discovered by the Celts, were the only sources of emeralds in the ancient world until 1545, the year the Spanish Conquistadors took possession of the Columbian mines. This is confirmed by the isotopic composition calculated for an emerald set, on the orders of Louis IX, Saint Louis, in the Holy crown of France from 1226 (whose origin was Habachtal) and from two others (from Habachtal and Egypt) studied in 1806 by Abbot Hauy, the founder of mineralogy. However, the analysis conducted on the most ancient specimen of the whole sample, which adorns an earring from the Gallo– Roman epoch, showed this emerald’s source to have been mine deposits situated in the Swat Valley (now in Pakistan) which were believed to have been discovered only at the end of the 1950s. It thus appears that besides the gems of Egypt and Habachtal, some emeralds traded in ancient times could have come from the wealthy kingdoms occupying present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan and that merchants travelled along part of the Silk Route which crossed the Peshawar, Swat and Kabul valleys.

With the discovery of the new World by the Spaniards, Columbian emeralds, which are of exceptional quality, became predominant from the early XVIth century onwards on the emerald markets of Europe, the Middle East and in India. This was confirmed by analyses on an emerald found in the wreck of a Spanish galleon sunk off Florida in 1622 and on three out of four assumed to be “old-mine” emeralds cut in the XVIIIth century and on jewels from the collection of treasures of the Nizam of Hyderabad (India). These data bring into question the supposed origin of the emeralds from the “old mines” said to have been extracted in South-East Asia. The fourth stone from the Nizam of Hyderabad treasures has an isotopic composition revealing it to be from mines in Afghanistan, rediscovered in the 1970s and surveyed and mapped by the Soviets from 1976. This shows that exploitation of the Afghan deposits is not recent and that it could have begun in the XVIIIth century. These results put an end to the mystery of the so-called “old-mine” emeralds. If most of them were taken from deposits in the New World, others could have come from Asia, as some researchers had indeed suspected.

EAS to move

The Eastern Analytical Symposium has, since 1990 when it moved from New York, been held each Autumn in Somerset, NJ, USA. The increasing size of the conference and exhibition have meant that the organisers have had to look at alternative sites. They have announced that from 2000, EAS will be held in Atlantic City, NJ. Atlantic City is one of the few parts of the USA where gambling is legal, and hosted the Pittsburgh Conference for seven of the years between 1980 and 1987. Atlantic City has a new convention centre that should provide the space EAS needs in the future.

The dates for the next two meetings, both in Atlantic City, are 29 October– 3 November 2000 and 30 September– 4 October 2001.easinfo@aol.com.

Award for chemical microscope

Millbrook Instruments has won the 1999 Scientific Instrument Makers’ Achievement Award with its Chemical Microscope. Granted by The Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers, the Award acknowledges companies which have made the greatest contribution to developing, maintaining or promoting the industry within the UK. Millbrook was the sole company to win in 1999.

The winner of the 1999 Scientific Instrument Makers Achievement Award, the Chemical Microscope.

The Chemical Microscope is the world’s first bench-top imaging SIMS instrument. Its capital and running costs are around a tenth those of a conventional SIMS system, and it is suited to quality control and routine research applications. The Award consists of a cheque for £500, an inscribed miniature Head of Minerva and a trophy which all winners hold for one year. millbrook@compuserve.com, www.millbrook-instruments.com.