The Column - April 2009 - (Page 16)

Incognito The Column www.thecolumn.eu.com April 2009 Don Farrall/Getty Images Pittcon Pioneers… After returning from Pittcon this year a little deflated by the lack of inspiration on offer, Incognito calls for a return to the inventive spirit and urges all entrepreneurs to demonstrate their creativity. I returned from this year’s Pittcon meeting feeling a little deflated. Professionally I had a successful time but the event caused me to reflect on the reducing ‘Pioneering’ spirit in our industry and the obvious shift in focus from invention to innovation. I think we need to distinguish between the two and the most succinct definition I can find was from McKeown — “A distinction is typically made between invention, an idea made manifest, and innovation, ideas applied or developed successfully.”1 Walking the floor at Pittcon can be a tiring affair as the show is usually very large (this year there were 2200 exhibitors), however, the fatigue is usually mitigated as one comes across new products and instruments that excite the imagination and offer new possibilities for our analyses. This year was a tiring year! The amount of invention on show approached zero with innovative products down to a level I haven’t seen for many years. A brief look at the ‘Editors’ Awards’ for the show perhaps give an indication that my observations are correct: 2009 Awards Gold Award: inXitu Inc.: Field Portable XRD/XRF instrument Silver Award: O.I. Analytical/Picarro Inc.: iTOC-CRDS isotopic carbon analyser Bronze Award: Shimadzu Scientific Instruments: IG 1000 particle size analyser 2007 Awards Gold Award: Waters Corp.: Synapt HD-MS Silver Award (Tie): Paraytec: ActiPix (multiplexed UV detector) Thermo Fisher Scientific: LTQ ETD Bronze Award: Bruker: FTIR Contact author: E-mail: Incognito incognito@thecolumn.eu.com As readers of a magazine dedicated to chromatographic separations (often with MS detectors), I’m sure you will agree that compared with 2007 — this wasn’t our finest hour! It wasn’t all doom and gloom, however, and in this tough economic climate, there were some glimmers of light. The meeting featured an increased prominence of HILIC column technologies and their mixed mode derivatives. The development of superficially porous HPLC materials and polymeric or silica derivative particles continues to show good promise especially in the areas of ion-exchange and size exclusion. Instrument launches included new LC–MS technology to improve laboratory efficiency and end-to-end throughput, GC–MS with improved detection sensitivity and selectivity as well as the re-introduction of autosampler technology that is enabled for sample preparation. Chiral SFC technologies also featured prominently at the meeting as did reversed-phase chiral separations. A much more in-depth review of new products at the show, written by Ron Majors in his Column Watch column, can be seen at www.chromatographyonline.com So, there was still much to discuss, however noticeably less than in previous years and it was while discussing the career of LC•GC Award winner, Professor Emeritus Harold McNair that my thoughts focused on the apparent decline in our inventive spirit and innovative attitude. Plato famously said that “the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention.” So have we reached the end of the road in terms of our chromatographic necessity? Do we not have any further needs to inspire great invention? I 16 http://www.thecolumn.eu.com http://www.chromatographyonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Column - April 2009

The Column - April 2009
Contents
HPTLC Determination of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Mussels After a Crude Oil Spill in Chile
News
Incognito - Pittcon Pioneers…
Market Trends & Analysis
Characterizing the Secreted Proteome of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis by LC–MS–MS
Tips and Tricks: GPC/SEC
Meeting Review - Pittcon 2009
Q&A

The Column - April 2009