JAAS News

Allan Ure Bursary – Call for Applications
DEADLINE: 31st May 2013

The Allan Ure Bursary is awarded on an annual basis, alternately by the Atomic Spectroscopy Group of the Analytical Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (ASG, AD, RSC) and the Atomic Spectrometry Updates (ASU) Editorial Board.

The award is presented to a scientist, at the start of their career, who the adjudicators believe has made a significant contribution to knowledge in the area of the application of atomic spectrometry to environmental science. The successful applicant will receive £500 to help with any expenses that may be of benefit to their career.

Who can apply?
Applicants need not be specialised analytical chemists and may come from fields as diverse as geology, biology, oceanography, geography and environmental science. They will, however, have to demonstrate that they use atomic spectrometry on a regular basis for their work. The scope of the Atomic Spectrometry Update – Environmental Analysis, published each year in the February issue of the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry may be taken as guidance.

Applications
Applications should be made electronically and consist of the applicant’s Curriculum Vitae plus a covering letter which clearly states how the bursary will be used and how the applicant believes this will benefit their career. The name of one referee (normally the applicant’s line manager) who is familiar with the applicant’s recent work should also be provided.

Applications may be submitted to ASG electronically to Dr A Fisher, afisher@plymouth.ac.uk

Further Information
Details of past winners and further information can be found on the ASG Website.

Sirven et al. featured on the front cover of JAAS, 2007, Issue 12

Yesterday the Royal Society of Chemistry had the pleasure to meet the driver of the Mars Curiosity rover Paolo Bellutta who revealed the secrets of Mars one year after the first ‘landing’ in 2012.

You might remember the paper published in 2007 in JAAS about ChemCam, the powerful instrument now functional part of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover used to study the red planet.

ChemCam uses laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to remotely analyse the surface of Mars looking into the chemistry of its rocks.

Jean-Baptiste Servien and colleagues at CEA Saclay, France, introduced the three chemometric approaches used by ChemCam to study the rocks on the surface of Mars in the paper entitled Feasibility study of rock identification at the surface of Marsby remote laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and three chemometric methods.

Mars Curiosity rover on the red planet

Last August, Curiosity successfully landed at Gale Crater on the planet Mars. Paolo Bellutta, Rover’s driver from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explained what is behind a one-ton vehicle that is able to land in such a hostile place where the wind runs at 400Km/h, the temperature reaches -90°C and the sky turns orange.

How do we drive on Mars? And what are we doing on Mars ? To know everything about the Mars Mission watch the video soon available on The Reaction website.

Free for you until May 13th: Feasibility study of rock identification at the surface of Mars by remote laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and three chemometric methods
Jean-Baptiste Sirven, Béatrice Sallé, Patrick Mauchien, Jean-Luc Lacour, Sylvestre Maurice and Gérard Manhès
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2007, 22, 1471-1480
DOI: 10.1039/B704868H

Man has been making glass since the third millennium BC and during the manufacture of ancient glass, antimony, in a metal or mineral form, was added to make it colourless or opaque.

Different antimony ores have slightly different antimony isotope ratios and researchers in Belgium and the UK have developed an inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method to detect and quantify these tiny differences. By analysing samples of Roman glass, the team hope to uncover clues about how the glass was made and the geographical provenance of the raw materials.

To read the full article please visit Chemistry World.

Isotopic analysis of antimony using multi-collector ICP-mass spectrometry for provenance determination of Roman glass
Lara Lobo,Patrick Degryse,Andrew Shortland and Frank Vanhaecke
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3JA50018G

While X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy is a well-established technique for the investigation of paintings, the apparatus used are usually custom built and not widely available. Now, Matthias Alfeld and colleagues have developed a portable macro XRF spectrometer to look at paintings in situ.

The team used the device to look at a portrait by Govert Flinck, a Dutch painter who was a protégé of the great Rembrandt. Interestingly, they found that originally the subject was painted wearing a broad bobbin lace collar and long lace cuffs but this was toned down for the final version, possibly because it was too trendy.

Govert Flinck, Portrait of Dirck Jacobsz. Leeuw and elemental distribution images of the painting.

 To read the full article please visit Chemistry World.

A mobile instrument for in situ scanning macro-XRF investigation of historical paintings
Matthias Alfeld ,  Joana Vaz Pedroso, Margriet van Eikema Hommes, Geert Van der Snickt, Gwen Tauber, Jorik Blaas, Michael Haschke, Klaus Erler, Joris Dik and Koen Janssens
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3JA30341A