Answering Scarcity with Abundant Innovation

Smaller than a credit card, the HPLC-Chip/ MS combines high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, which determines the composition of a molecule. With this chip, scientists can identify proteins within minutes to a few hours and easily reproduce their results. The chip also has potential uses with tiny samples in drug development, food safety and environmental monitoring. From communications to chemistry, we see no shortage of challenges for all who seek to measure their world. However, as you'll see in this issue of Agilent Measurement Journal, there is no scarcity of new measurement ideas coming from the people of Agilent. Innovations in modulation, such as orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), continue to expand the volume of information that can be delivered through a narrow communication channel. Agilent's ongoing improvements to our instruments using increasingly precise mixers and faster digitizers enable analysis of ever more complex modulation methods. Innovations such as vector signal analyzers (VSAs) enhance this analysis by extracting information from acquired signals according to the relevant wireless standard. Sometimes scarcity takes on physical dimensions. In fi elds ranging from forensics to proteomics, successful analysis depends on the ability to work with very small or very limited samples. Rather than cubic centimeters or milliliters, the quantities are described in nanoliters and picoliters — billionths and trillionths of a liter. Innovations that enable new measurements often occur when proven technologies from different fi elds are brought together. A liquid chromatograph (LC) uses an elaborate network of tubes, valves and analytical columns to separate and measure mixtures of sample substances. Semiconductor fabrication technology makes it possible to create highly precise physical structures at microscopic scales. Agilent applied these capabilities to develop a new kind of device — the HPLC-Chip/MS — that revolutionizes the amount of information that can be obtained from even the scarcest samples. In many cases, it's scarcity — not necessity — that drives innovation. As our customers deal with various forms of scarcity , it spurs us to create new innovations in measurement technology. Wireless communications is just one example. With the widespread use of cellular devices, wireless Internet access and more, it's easy to forget one essential fact: frequency spectrum is a scarce resource. The airwaves are crowded with myriad signals, many of which operate on adjacent frequencies. As new wireless applications demand additional system capacity, the radio spectrum becomes ever more crowded with the rising amounts of …