Most of us who work in laboratories use an analytical balance as part of our daily routine. In fact, it’s such a familiar object that we rarely give it much thought, unless there’s a problem with it. The UK's Laboratory of the Government Chemist has just released a video into the public domain covering the essentials of analytical balance use. The video was recorded to support training under the Valid Analytical Measurement (VAM) programme in 1999 and provides an authoritative guide on correct use of the balance. Which balance? For quantitative analytical work, it is generally acceptable to weigh to…

The Royal Society of Chemistry has developed an on-line resource for chemistry education called Learn Chemistry. The site contains material for both teachers and students, and has content appropriate for primary, secondary, under-graduate and post-graduate students. There are many different types of resource, including presentations, videos, worksheets, quizes, experiments, games and podcasts, as well as links to other web sites. The periodic table is particularly impressive; click on an element to see associated information including physico-chemical data, uses, interesting facts, videos and history. There are also some pretty gruesome accounts of the effect of chemicals on the human body. For…

The Analytical Methods Committee (AMC) is the technical arm of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Analytical Division. The AMC’s Technical Briefs are a useful, practical source of information on statistical tools for analytical chemists, as well as providing guidance on specific analytical techniques. Recent topics include the use of non-parametric statistics, immunoassays and the characterisation of nanoparticles. The brief that I’ve referred to most frequently during training sessions for clients is headed: ‘Is my calibration linear?’ and was published in 2005. It warns against over-reliance on the correlation coefficient as a means of evaluating the linearity of detector response, and…