Editorial

From January 2008, your print copy of Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry (JAAS) will contain Chemical Technology, a short news magazine that showcases the best work from the RSC’s collection of journals. Chemical Technology focuses on the exciting science behind the latest applications and technological aspects of chemistry, so it fits well with JAAS’ remit of publishing research on the fundamental theory and applications of atomic spectrometry.

The JAAS editorial board decided that Chemical Technology should replace its sister magazine, Chemical Science, which has been providing readers with a glimpse of the latest developments across the chemical sciences since 2004. Chemical Science fans can still get their fix on the web, where all the content is freely available. The journal homepage will continue to alert readers to new issues of Chemical Science.

There have been a number of high profile JAAS stories that have featured in both magazines, and in some cases gone on to be picked up by the wider media. A paper from 2007 on measuring strontium isotope ratios in birds’ feathers, which helped to solve the mysteries of their migration patterns, was later featured on the BBC news website, for instance.

In addition to news stories about journal articles, the magazines also feature interviews with leading scientists—look out for an interview with JAAS editorial board member Norbert Jakubowski in Chemical Biology soon. Another new feature we introduced in 2007 was Instant insights. These whirlwind accounts of exciting fields of research are often based on review articles from RSC journals and give a quick introduction to the topic. Issue 10 of Chemical Biology included an Instant insight by Alfredo Sanz-Medel and colleagues on elemental mass spectrometry for quantitative phosphoproteomics.

I hope that you enjoy reading Chemical Technology in the journal and Chemical Science and Chemical Biology on the web.

Plate1 Dr N. Withers

Neil Withers

Editor, Chemical Technology

E-mail: chemicaltechnology@rsc.org

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