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Whither Analytical Chemistry? I
n the July 1, 1999 issue of Analytical Chemistry, Editor Royce Murray talked about the analytical chemistry of the 1950s and contrasted it with the science of today. As someone who also began his career in the late 50s and early 60s, I share Royce’s amazement at how far the field has advanced. Yes, 40 years ago there was a major concern with respect to the survival of analytical chemistry in universities, as major institutions dropped academic positions in the field. Today, that sense of insecurity no longer remains; we are a flourishing field. The causes are multifold, and certainly those mentioned by Royce, such as the advancement in intellectual scope, have played a significant role. However, if I were to use one word to summarize the reasons for our success, it would be “relevance”. We are a science of chemical measurement, and our impact is felt most by the relevance of the tools we develop.
New challenges Scientifically, we live in an era with an ever-expanding focus on the life sciences. Projections for the next 50 years are breathtaking: life spans of 150 years, eradication of cancer, and mind-enhancing drugs are only a few of the expected advances. Analytical chemistry will be highly relevant, indeed essential, to reaching these milestones. Because of its complexity, understanding life processes requires careful and controlled experimentation. As was true 40 years ago, the analytical chemist must play a central role in the measurement science. He/she must answer such questions as, “How accurate and precise are quantitative expression levels of genes or proteins? How can one analyze chemical components in individual cells and cellular compartments? How can one conduct 100,000 to several million assays per day? How can one handle and manipulate the enormous amount of data being generated?” The technological developments of today could not have been dreamed of 40 years ago—MS at the attomole to zeptomole levels, single-molecule laser-fluorescence analysis, micro-total analysis systems, atomic force microscopy, and DNA chips, to name but a few. I hope the reader shares with me the excitement of each of these new advances. The impact of our analytical technologies on the new paradigm of the biological sciences is already great. We need think only of the Human Genome Project, where capillary
array electrophoresis is being used to sequence human and other organisms’ genomes. Many analytical chemists—separation scientists, spectroscopists, microscale specialists, and data handling experts—have contributed to the success of this field. With the completion of the sequencing of the human genome, we will move into a new and exciting era of possibilities in diagnostics and understanding disease, which could lead to major advances in human health. One key difference today is that these problems require a true multidisciplinary approach. Analytical chemists must be part of a team, and, as such, they must be able to interact with other disciplines and understand the language and principles of these disciplines. Most importantly, they must be involved in defining the actual goals of the program. Such a team effort requires, in my view, that analytical chemistry graduates have a good grounding in chemistry and the biological sciences. Some basic understanding of genetics, protein chemistry, immunology, and cell biology is a necessity in this new era. I should also note that because of the multidisciplinary environment, all fields are becoming somewhat blurred. Nevertheless, my view is that there remains a science of chemical measurement, which is the basis of analytical chemistry. We are blessed to live and participate in such exciting times. Yes, it is a great challenge to keep up with the rapid changes in knowledge and technology, but we should embrace these changes. The most important principle a student must learn at the university is to view change not as a barrier but as an opportunity. Almost a decade ago, I wrote in this Journal (Anal. Chem. 1991, 63, 385 A–391 A) that we were entering an era of high growth for the life sciences, one of major opportunity for the next generation of analytical chemists. We are no longer entering this era, but are in the thick of it. It is easy to predict that the excitement in our field will be even greater 10 years from now.
Barry L. Karger Northeastern University
[email protected] F E B R U A R Y 1 , 2 0 0 0 / A N A LY T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y
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EDITOR Royce W. Murray University of North Carolina
ASSOCIATE EDITORS Daniel W. Armstrong
Reinhard Niessner
University of Missouri–Rolla
Techische Universität München (Germany)
Catherine C. Fenselau
Robert A. Osteryoung
University of Maryland
William S. Hancock
North Carolina State University
Edward S. Yeung
AgilentTechnologies
Iowa State University/Ames Laboratory
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Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Chevron Research andTechnology
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Robert T. Kennedy
CaliperTechnologies
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Frank V. Bright
National Institute of Standards andTechnology
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University of Southern Denmark
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University of Arizona
Kay Niemax
Robert M. Corn
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College of Wooster
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Kimberely Prather
Pennsylvania State University
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Klaus Albert
Peter Schoenmakers
Viorica Lopez-Avila
University ofTubingen (Germany)
Midwest Research Institute
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Shell Research andTechnology (The Netherlands)
Andreas Manz
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Triangle Pharmaceuticals
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