Matter

Humans have been wondering, “But what is this or that made of, really?!” for a very long time. Lekshmi Dinachandran goes searching for some answers.

The jury's still out on the harms of vaping - but what does science know about the individual components?

New Zealand drinking water regulators have introduced new limits for N-nitrosodimethylamine, a carcinogenic compound often abbreviated to NDMA, in drinking water. These levels are very low (0.0001mg/L) and will require specific testing methods to determine if drinking water suppliers meet the new requirements. NDMA has been found in drinking water across the globe, and many analytical techniques have been used to identify and measure it. This review briefly summarises the health risks, formation and prevalence of NDMA in a drinking water context, before discussing the analytical techniques that are used to quantify NDMA at the required levels of sensitivity. The most common techniques are preconcentration by solid-phase extraction or solid-phase microextraction, followed by separation by gas or liquid chromatography and finally detection by mass spectrometry or chemiluminescence.

Sentiment analysis is here applied to narratives considered to be essentially descriptive of facts (which include actions around either the discovery of those facts), actions related to experiences of a chemist, and narratives with a more poetic or creative character. A continuum is envisaged between Western pragmatism on the one hand – most obviously shown in descriptive narratives – and Eastern mysticism on the other – most obviously shown in poetic works, with action narratives occupying a position between or even overlapping with these end-points. Such a continuum suggests that Western and Eastern thought may not necessarily be as independent from each other as has been often portrayed.

Distinguished Professor Dame Margaret Brimble's outstanding contributions to organic chemistry have been awarded with the Davy Medal from the Royal Society (London).