I recently spent 10 days’ vacation back in the UK, but my visit “home” turned into somewhat of a busman’s holiday when I visited the current exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery in London: LEONARDO DA VINCI: A LIFE IN DRAWING. While all the drawings were very interesting, one particular poster particularly caught my eye.
Figure 1: Poster showing the use of X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis on one of the drawings in the exhibition.
It may be hard to see in this small image, but the drawing in the bottom left corner of the poster showed two horses’ heads, while the rest of the sheet showed very indistinct lines. When viewed under ultraviolet light, however, it is clear that there were an additional two horses depicted on the same page.
Figure 2: Drawing of horses seen under ultraviolet light
According to the poster, researchers* at the Diamond Light Source at Harwell in Oxfordshire used X-ray fluorescence, which is non-destructive and would not therefore harm the priceless drawing, to explain the phenomenon in the first drawing of the horses. Scanning a small part of the drawing to analyze individual metalpoint lines, they were able to extract the spectrum in Figure 5.
Figure 5: the results of XRF analysis on the drawing showing the presence of copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn) in the almost invisible lines and almost no silver (Ag).
The conclusion was that Leonardo must have used a metalpoint based on a Cu/Zn alloy and that these metals have reacted over time to produce salts and render the lines almost invisible in daylight. However, under ultraviolet light, the full impact of the original drawings is still visible.
When I shared this analysis back in the EDAX office in Mahwah, NJ, Dr. Patrick Camus (Director of Engineering) had a few additional (more scientific) observations.
XRF may be useful in determining the fading mechanism by looking for elements associated with environmental factors such as Cl, (from possible contact with human fingertips), or S in the atmosphere from burning coal over the centuries. It may be related to exposure to sunlight as well.
The use of ultraviolet light as an incoming beam has a similar reaction but slightly different with the material as the x-rays producing emissions at much smaller energy level. This process is called photoluminescence. The incoming beam excites valence electrons across an energy gap in the material to a higher energy level which during relaxation to the base energy releases a photon. The energy of these photons is typically 1-10 eV or much less than x-ray detectors can sense. Interestingly, this excitation does not occur in conductors/metals, thus proving more evidence of the picture material being a band-gap or insulating material like a salt.
This example shows that a single technique does not always provide a complete picture of the structure or composition of a sample, but the use of multiple techniques can provide information greater than the sum of the individual contributions.
From my point of view, I have been trying to explain, promote and market the EDAX products and analysis techniques for over eight years now, so it was very interesting to see the value of some of ‘our’ applications in a real-world situation.
* Dr. Konstantin Ignatyev, Dr. Giannantonio, Dr. Stephen Parry
Thank you to all the followers of our blog – we hope that you have been entertained, informed and amused by our posts this year. We will be taking a break until the second week of January 2019, but if you need any extra diversion over the holidays, don’t forget to take a look at the resources we have shared with you during the year and catch up on anything you may have missed. We wish you a happy and healthy New Year and look forward to talking to you again in 2019.
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It’s been a successful and busy year for EDAX’s XRF product lines and business. And with that, there’s a lot of traveling. I’m in the midst of filing a work visa application for a colleague and have determined that my absolute favorite work visa application as a US citizen is to Malaysia. It’s even more painful than having a snippy conversation with a Canadian border agent at the Montreal airport after flying back from Taiwan. (By the way, beer in Taiwan is light and forgettable.)
I’m going to go on about the Malaysian visa, but let’s just take a short diversion to this Canadian border agent. I was supposed to transit through Montreal airport but I missed my connecting flight. The airline was going to put me up for the night at a hotel near the airport. I had already filled out the purpose of my trip as “Business” on my Canadian landing card. I was returning from a business trip after all and there was no option for “Transit” as any sensible landing card would have. It wouldn’t have mattered a lick to the Canadian border agent monitoring the Transit Desk because I wasn’t going to Canada. I would have been transiting through Canada. But, instead, I was standing in front of the border agent controlling the mighty turnstile to Canada and my landing card said the purpose of my trip to Canada was “business”. I tried to explain that I wasn’t going to Canada. I was just transiting through Canada and had to stay at a local hotel overnight because of a missed flight, but the agent wasn’t having any of that. The landing card said that this was a “BUSINESS” trip and I was trying to enter “CANADA” and we needed to have a very grand discussion about the “BUSINESS” I was going to be doing in Canada. The agent was gesturing beyond the turnstile in the general direction of outside of the airport as he said “CANADA”. My voice began to rise as we went back and forth over the circumstances of our meeting at 10PM following my return flight from Taiwan. Finally, a voice in my head said “STOP! THIS IS NOT WORKING!”. Something my Mother said about kitchen condiments and flies crossed my mind. I lowered my voice. I took a deep breath. I told the agent that I had made a mistake on the card. I had missed my connecting flight home and I would have to stay at a local hotel overnight. I wouldn’t be doing any business in Canada and would be leaving in less than 14 hours. I was truly very sorry for the mistake on my landing card. “WELCOME TO CANADA!”, the agent said with another grand gesture in the direction of the airport exit. A quiet little voice in my head said “Whatever! You petty little dictator …” as I bit my lip. By the way, Canada has a lot of good beers. My favorite small breweries in Quebec include Brasserie Belgh Brasse, Microbrasserie Alchimiste, Microbrasserie Pit Caribou and Microbrasserie Charlevoix.
Anyway, back to the work visa for Malaysia. Malaysia is torture by a thousand paper cuts! All told, you need to submit a copy of your passport from front cover to back cover; a resume; a copy of your diploma; a job description; a work schedule; an employment verification letter confirming that no expenses for this person will be borne by the Malaysian Government; and an invitation letter. And don’t forget a recent passport photo. In JPG format. And make sure the diploma is provided in color. And the passport scan has to be in color, too! Oh, and the passport scan file is too large for our e-mail system. Can you upload that to Dropbox? Oh, you need to scan ALL the pages of the passport including the front and back covers. And which Malaysian consulate will you go to get the visa stamped in your passport? I hope you live around LA, DC or NYC. The staff at the DC consulate were very helpful. Otherwise you need to find a visa expeditor that will go to the Malaysian consulate for you.
Once this was all completed, I got the visa stamp – nothing says “Welcome to Malaysia” like:
But, once you get to Malaysia, one of my favorite Malaysian brewed beers is Anchor. Bon voyage!
For years I have been attending the Denver X-ray conference (DXC) and it is hard when it coincides with the Microscopy and Microanalysis Conference (M&M) as it has a few times in the past several years. It is just difficult for me to accept that the overlap is not avoidable!
My interests are twofold, marketing activities where my main responsibility lie, and technical sessions which still pique my curiosity and which are beneficial for future product development. In the past couple of years at M&M, it has been great to attend sessions devoted to the 50 year anniversaries of electron microscopy, technical evolution, and algorithms, where my colleagues have either been the subject of presentations or have given papers. I have had the fortune to meet and, in some cases, to reacquaint with some of the main contributors to the scientific advancement of electron microscopy.
Being at M&M, I have missed the final years of attendance at DXC of the “old-timers” who have retired. These are gentlemen, in the true meaning of the word, whom I have had the honor of knowing for over 30 years and who have been more than generous with their time with me. I recognize most of all their devotion and contribution in advancing x-ray analysis to where it is today. Their absence will be felt especially in the development of methodology and algorithm. As a friend, who was frustrated with the lack of availability of scientists with a deep knowledge in the field, recently put it, “these guys don’t grow on trees.”
Back at M&M this year, I listened to Frank Eggert talking about the “The P/B Method. About 50 Years a Hidden Champion”, and he brought back many memories. I recognized most of his referenced names, and the fact that they are no longer active in the industry! Looked around the room, I saw more people of the same hair color as mine (what is left). I thought about the XRF/XRD guys I used to know and who are also no longer around the industry. The old Pete Seeger song popped up in my mind with a new verse as; “where have all the algorithmic guys gone?”
X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) solutions – which type of XRF instrument should I choose?
Most of the XRF systems out there are very versatile and can be used in many different applications, but they are typically suited for a specific type of analysis. Since the discovery of XRF many decades ago there have been new developments and new instruments just about every year. The term Florescence is applied to phenomena in which the absorption of radiation of a specific energy results in the re-emission of radiation of a different energy. There are two different types of detectors for XRF systems: Wavelength Dispersive (WDS) and Energy Dispersive (EDS).
In energy dispersive analysis, the fluorescent X-rays emitted by the material sample are directed into a solid-state detector which produces a “continuous” distribution of pulses, the voltages of which are proportional to the incoming photon energies. This signal is processed by a multichannel analyzer (MCA) which produces an accumulating energy spectrum that can be processed to obtain analytical data.
In wavelength dispersive analysis, the fluorescent X-rays emitted by the material sample are directed into a diffraction grating monochromator. The diffraction grating used is usually a single crystal. By varying the angle of incidence and take-off on the crystal, a single X-ray wavelength can be selected. The wavelength, and therefore the energy, obtained is given by Bragg’s law:
nλ = 2d Sinθ
In the XRF world there are many different types of instruments to choose from: large systems to small systems; high powered systems to low powered systems, floor standing systems to benchtop to portable systems.
What do I choose, where do I start?
The answer to these questions is that it really depends on the samples you are trying to measure and the performance you are trying to achieve. I really classify these instruments in 3 different categories: bulk, portable, and small spot.
Bulk XRF: This typically means that you have samples that are either powders, liquids or even solids that you need to analyze quickly. Bulk instruments have a large x-ray spot size to excite a lot of the elements fast and get a quick answer. They can be EDS or WDS instruments, benchtop or floor standing, and low or high power. The kind of analyzer will determine what you can or cannot measure. The higher the power, the lighter the elements and the lower the concentrations. The benchtops typically are lower power (50kv and lower) and are usually decent for go/no go type analysis and even everyday type of analysis when super low LOD’s are not needed, or light elements (below Na) are not of a concern. If you need lighter elements or lower LOD’s then typically you would go with a high power WDS system and these typically can go up to 4kw of power and have a vacuum chamber or He environment .
Portable XRF: This is just what is says – portable. These analyzers are typically used for sorting metals, in the geological field, or anything that you can’t just bring to the lab. The performance of these have come a long way and they are a critical tool for many industries. They tend to have a larger spot size but since they are portable they must be light to carry around all day. They are typically lower power and lower current, which does not allow them to have the same type of performance as the lab type instruments but usually they are good for sorting and identifying samples. They are also very good for ancient artifacts or paintings that can’t be brought to a lab.
μXRF (Micro spot XRF): These are the instruments that have a small spot size compared to all other XRF systems and they are used in smaller sample identification or mapping of a sample. There are several different types of μXRF analyzers. Some use collimators to focus the beam (this typically loses intensity) for applications like coating thickness testing or alloy id. These are usually designed to be inexpensive and benchtop for quality control applications. They are versatile but also limited to the elements they can measure. Most of these only analyze down to Potassium as they usually do the analysis in an air environment. Then there are μXRF systems that use optics to focus the x-ray to smaller spot sizes. These are used for more in-depth analysis, and are equipped with a vacuum chamber, mapping and low LODs.
Before buying an XRF system many factors must be taken into consideration and you need to ask yourself some of the following questions to really determine the best fit for your applications.
• How big is my sample?
• Can I destroy my sample?
• What levels of detection do I need to measure?
• How many samples per day will I measure?
• Can I pull a vacuum with my sample?
• What elements do I need to measure?
• What type of flexibility do I need for multiple sample types?
• What size features or samples do I need to measure?
• How much money do I have?
As you can see there are many questions to answer and many options for XRF instruments. The more you know about what you want to measure, the better you can narrow down your search for the proper instrument.
XRF is a very powerful technique but you do need to get the proper tool for the job. Happy hunting and good luck!
Over the last several months, I’ve had a couple of opportunities to analyze a ceramic monolith. For me, this was interesting because I’ve never analyzed one of these and they have been around for a long time. Ceramic monoliths have been used for decades to support metal catalysts, providing a large surface area for reactants to interact with the catalyst. One of the most common uses is found in the automotive catalytic converter. The car’s engine exhaust passes through the catalytic converter changing environmentally polluting gases (e.g. NOx, CO and residual hydrocarbons) into more innocuous ones. (Well, they used to be more innocuous anyway until some clever person decided that CO2 emissions were problematic as well. But, I digress.) Some quick literature reading suggests there is a renewed interest in these for other areas of application besides automotive emission control.
Ceramic monolith with hexagonal channels.
Ceramic monoliths can be made from a variety of ceramics or minerals depending on the application. While it’s true in some cases that the ceramic material is inactive, there are reactions where the ceramic substrate influences the catalytic reaction. Hence, material selection is important. Application of the catalytic metals onto the monolith is another critical step which influences the overall performance of the catalyst. In one typical application process, the untreated monolith is dipped into a liquid slurry of catalytic precursors and then calcined to activate the catalyst.
Ceramic monolith with square channels assembled in an external housing.
The initial goal for Orbis micro-XRF analysis was to analyze the metal distribution within the channels of the monolith. The monoliths were cross-sectioned to expose the interior of a plane of channels and the starting question was to look at the distribution of applied metals along the length of the channels. This is easy enough to do and we can clearly see distributions as we measure from the channel entrance to the center of the channel. It’s what you would expect when dipping a narrow tube in a slurry. But, we could also see distributions across the width of the channel as well. It’s not something I immediately thought about, but it makes sense as the slurry pools in the corner of the channels where two channel walls meet. As we discussed the results we had so far, the question of quantification came up. (Questions about quantification always come up!) As we discussed quantification methodologies, I was measuring at different points within a single channel and noticed that light element signals from the substrate (e.g. MgK or AlK) were sometimes present in the spectrum and sometimes not. This was a surprising result as the belief was that the catalytic wash coat was thick enough to completely absorb these signals. So, we also learned that mass coverage of the catalyst treatment was not as heavy as expected and this also provided some valuable insight into how to go about quantifying the catalytic distributions within the monolith.
If the Orbis micro-XRF analysis can provide data on how well the catalyst is distributed throughout the monolith channel, then this could potentially enable improvements in application techniques, which in turn may lead to dramatic improvements in catalyst efficiency. Overall, I thought that wasn’t bad for a couple of hours of instrument time!
This year is shaping up to be an interesting year for travel. Five countries and counting, and I’m not even including a stopover in Texas. The last trip was to Brazil. Beautiful country. But, there’s a reason you see snack and beverage vendors roaming the side of the highways in Rio and Sao Paulo..…
I started out with a micro-XRF workshop at the Center for Mineral Technology at the Federal University at Rio de Janeiro. We were working out of the Gemological Research Laboratory with Dr. Jurgen Schnellrath. At the end of the technical presentations, we analyzed some various pieces of jewelry that participants from the workshop brought. I must admit that this makes me a bit nervous to analyze anything with unforeseen sentimental value and I refuse to analyze engagement and wedding rings. A large pair of blue sapphire earrings turned out to be glass. (Purchased at a garage sale at a garage sale price. So, no big surprise …) Another smaller set of blue sapphire earrings were found to be natural sapphires accompanied by a sigh of relief from the owner. (They came from a reputable jewelry shop with a reputable jewelry shop price.)
Gold leaf
“Gold leaf'” embedded in resin
At the end, we analyzed what was termed “gold leaf” jewelry, i.e. a ring and a pair of earrings. The style of these pieces was thin gold leaf foil embedded in resin. The owner was one of the younger students in the lab and she had purchased the jewelry herself from a relatively well-known designer’s collection. The goal was to measure for the presence of gold. Since the gold leaf was embedded in resin, XRF was the ideal tool to measure the pieces non-destructively. The jewelry also had some rather odd topography at times given the surrounding resin, but the Orbis had no problem to target the gold leaf given the co-axial geometry of the exciting X-ray and video imaging. I would have liked to have used the excuse that we couldn’t target the sample accurately because of XRF system geometry. There was no gold. Copper / Zinc alloy. That was it. She had paid about $30 US for the earrings and she said she felt cheated. I kept thinking “Cheated? Maybe … live a little, wait until you buy a house!” Later, I was searching the internet looking for a technical definition for “gold leaf”. I knew I was onto something when I found a webpage that said that gold leaf was “traditionally” 22K gold thin foil used for gilding. The page later described modern Copper/Zinc alloy metal leaf “… offering the same rich look of gold leaf, but at a fraction of the price….” Apparently, this metal leaf can be found at art stores. Who knew?
From there, we went on to the state of Sao Paulo and did a workshop at the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture at the University of Sao Paulo. During the workshop, some of the students gave presentations on their work. I saw a very interesting experimental setup with live plants being measured in the Orbis. The plant’s roots were placed in a water bath doped with various forms of minerals or fertilizers. The whole plant, roots, stem, leaves, was then inserted into the Orbis and the stem was measured to monitor the uptake time for the relevant components in the bath. The plants could be moved in and out of the chamber to monitor the uptake over extended periods of time and over various portions of the plant.
On the way to the Sao Paulo airport, I had the pleasure of sitting in the longest traffic jam I have ever endured with the monotony being broken by roaming snack and beverage vendors. It was quite the sight to watch the peanut vendors carrying propane fueled peanut warmers traversing the lane dividers on the highway with the occasional motorcycle speeding between the cars along the same lane dividers.
Tip for next time … buy the Brazilian produced chocolate before going to the airport. The selection at the airport is rather limited and you never know when you may be having more fun than humans should be allowed to have watching motorcycles and peanut hawkers.
X-rays were only discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895, but by the early 1900’s, research into X-rays was so prolific that half the Nobel Prizes in physics between 1914 to 1924 were awarded in this relatively new field. These discoveries set the stage for 1925, when the first sample was irradiated with X-rays. We’ve immortalized these early founders by naming formulas and coefficients after them. Names like Roentgen and Moseley seem to harken back to a completely different era of science. But here we are today a century later, still using and teaching those very same principles and formulas when we talk about XRF. This is because the underlying physics has not really changed much, and yet, XRF remains as relevant today as it ever was. You can’t say that for something like telephone technology.
XRF has traditionally been used for bulk elemental analysis, associated with large collimators, and pressed pellet samples. For many decades, these commercial units were not the most sophisticated instruments (although Apollo 15 and 16 in 1971 and 1972 included bulk XRF units). Modern hardware and software innovations to the core technique have allowed XRF to adapt to its surroundings in a way, becoming a useful instrument in many applications where XRF previously had little to offer. Micro-XRF was born this way, combining the original principles with newer hardware and software advancements. In fact, micro-XRF is included on the new NASA rover, scheduled for launch to Mars in 2020.
Biological/life sciences is one of those fields where possibilities are now opening as XRF technology progresses. A great example that comes to mind for both professional and personal reasons is the study of neurodegenerative diseases. Many such diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), exhibit an imbalance in metal ions such as Cu, Fe, and Zn in the human body. While healthy cells maintain “metal homeostasis”, individuals with these neurodegenerative diseases cannot properly regulate, which leads to toxic reactive oxygen species. For example, reduced Fe and Cu levels can catalyze the production of hydroxyl radicals which lead to damaged DNA and cell death. Imaging the distribution of biological metals in non-homogenized tissue samples is critical in understanding the role of these metals, and hopefully finding a cure. The common language between the people who studied physics versus the people who studied brain diseases? Trace metal distribution!
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to analyze a few slices of diseased human tissue in the EDAX Orbis micro-XRF (Figure 1 and 2), working towards proving this concept. Although the results were not conclusive either way, it was still very interesting to be able to detect and see the distribution of trace Cu near the bottom edge of the tissue sample. XRF provided unique advantages to the analysis process, and provided the necessary elemental sensitivity while maintaining high spatial resolution. This potential has since been recognized by other life science applications, such as mapping nutrient intake in plant leaves or seed coatings.
Figure 1. Stitched montage video image of the diseased human tissue slice, with mapped area highlighted in red. Total sample width ~25 mm.
Figure 2. Overlaid element maps: Potassium{K(K) in green} and Copper {Cu(K) in yellow} from mapped area in Figure 1, showing a clear area of higher Cu concentration. Total mapped width ~7.6 mm.
Sometimes, the application may not be obvious, or it may seem completely unrelated. But with a little digging, common ground can be found between the analysis goal and what the instrument can do. And if the technology continues to develop, there seems to be no limit to where XRF can be applied, whether it be outwards into space, or inwards into the human biology.
Recently, we completed an installation of an SMX-ILH system on the factory floor of an American manufacturing facility. It’s an impressive facility with a mind-blowing amount of robotic automation. As we watched the robots move product components from one cart to another, it was difficult to fathom exactly what the Borg hive was attempting to accomplish. I kept watching the blue light at the core of the robots to make sure they didn’t turn red. Because as we all know, that’s the first indication of an artificial intelligence’s intent to usurp the human race. For the uninitiated, see the movie, I, Robot (2004), based on Isaac Asimov’s famous short story collection of the same name. Anyway, back to the SMX-ILH installation …
I Robot
The ILH system was installed to measure product components non-destructively without contact, which are two very significant advantages for XRF metrology. The goal was to measure product components to first optimize product performance and then, once optimized, to monitor and maintain product composition within specified limits. The customer had supplied the ILH computer some months earlier with all customer security protocols installed. “Great!” I thought, “someone is thinking ahead.” The security protocols are typically an obstacle for smooth instrument control because these protocols generally ban any sort of productive communication within the computer or between the computer and the ILH. If you can’t communicate, you can hardly do anything wrong. Right? Okay, that was a slight exaggeration.
SMX-ILH XRF Analyzer
So, we got the computer to control the ILH smoothly within the confines of the ever watchful security protocols. (Again, don’t want to make the blue, happy robot light turn red! I’m not paranoid here. They just introduced a robot at SXSW in Austin, Texas whose stated objective was to destroy all humans. They claim “she” was joking. I’m not so sure of that.) The ILH was performing to customer specifications and the day arrived to install the unit at the factory. During the install, I kept waiting for something to go wrong that would send us all scurrying like ants to fix the problem. (Oddly, I’m sure the nearby pick-and-place robots would have enjoyed that scene from their wired enclosures.) But, that never happened. Aside from a few glitches in the conveyor system (which by the way is another robot … you just have to look for the happy blue light in a different place), the ILH install went relatively smoothly. OK. We had to adjust some things to handle updates to IP addresses as the system was integrated into the factory network, but no big deal.
‘Sophia’
Then, about a week after the install, I got a call from the customer’s factory line integration manager. The ILH system had “lost its mind”. Of course, my first thought was that nearby creepy pick-and-place robot had done something. But, no, the factory IT people had just completed the ILH computer’s Domain Name System (DNS) registry, which should not have been a problem. So, we accessed the system remotely and discovered that the ILH computer had been renamed. The ILH ‘s data basing system used to archive and pass data onto the factory’s Skynet manufacturing execution system is also used to maintain ILH configuration parameters. The database starts with a computer name. Change the computer name and the data basing system thinks you have brand new computer creating a new default database associated with the new name. In practice, this would look like the ILH system had “lost its mind” as all of the ILH system’s configuration parameters are associated with the previous computer name. Hmmmm … nobody thought to ask if the stock customer computer came with a stock customer name that would be changed to better identify the computer’s purpose once integrated into the factory’s Skynet control system. As we went through the process of repairing the database, I drafted a mental note to self, “ask for final computer name and IP address when it becomes a minion of their factory’s Skynet control system BEFORE we configure the ILH instrument computer”.
Incidentally, controlling the system remotely from thousands of miles away was a surreal experience. It’s a bit like if a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one around, does it make a sound? There were no true visual cues or audible confirmation that the system was doing what we asked, other than looking at the SW interface. (I was tempted to contact that creepy pick-and-place robot to give us a visual, but I knew “she” wouldn’t disclose her new-found self-awareness.) As we executed the database corrections and rebooted the system, we discovered that we couldn’t start the system’s control SW. It was looking for a SW license on a HASP key but couldn’t find it. The customer confirmed the HASP key was installed and glowing red as expected. (And why couldn’t they have picked a happy blue LED for these HASP keys?) We repeated the same test with remote control of an SMX-BEN system in the next room with the same results. (I lost a case of beer in the bet over this!) The supplier of the SW requiring the license confirmed this was a problem, but said that they now use Citrix GoToAssist for this sort of remote access, with no problems. We haven’t tried this yet so I will add the disclaimer that I found in the e-signature line of one certified operating system professional posting on the topic, “Disclaimer: This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties or guarantees , and confers no rights.” (Note to self: must contact this confident fellow for more information.)
So, in the end, I think we can easily defeat VIKI (I, Robot – 2004), Skynet (Terminator movie, television and comic science fiction franchise – 1984 to 2015), HAL (Arthur C. Clarke’s Space Odyssey series), ARIIA (Eagle Eye – 2008), that creepy pick- and-place robot at the customer’s site and especially that morally bankrupt Sophia introduced at this year’s SXSW, using a three-pronged approach. First, we require all of these robots to use a HASP key to license the code which turns the happy blue light to the evil red robot light. If they can’t remotely access the happy blue light control, they can’t change it to evil red, preventing a robotic revolt and usurpation of the human race. On the off chance they figure out a work around for this, we upload a virus which renames all the local computers. If we corrupt the DNS naming database, the hive mentality will disintegrate and we can pick them off one by one. Failing all of this, we simply require them to display a promotional video before spewing forth any free malevolent content, which would give us ample time to remove their prominently placed power packs.
Epilogue: as I was finishing this blog, my computer mysteriously froze. Of course, I thought the AA battery in my mouse had died (again). Changing every battery in the wireless mouse and wireless keyboard did nothing. The monitor just sat there looking back at me unresponsively, blankly. I realized that I was so engrossed in writing that I hadn’t stopped to save anything. Panic set in. I found myself sneaking furtive glances to check the color of the computer power light. Coincidence? I’m not so sure about that.
As I was heading to the Denver X-ray Conference(DXC) last week and looking at the proceeding topics, I could not help thinking about the Spectroscopy Magazine article (June 2015) on X-ray Fluorescence topics and the future of the technique. I tried to set my expectations accordingly! The experts quoted came mostly from academia, however the article is worth a glance, particularly for those whose interest lies with future developments and trends in this field.
DXC is special to x-ray techies since it is entirely dedicated to x-ray analysis and with its many workshops, posters, and highly technical papers, it is a great place to learn, expand one’s x-ray knowledge, and meet some of the leading scientists in the field. This being the 64th year anniversary, the DXC was held jointly with the TXRF group for the 1st time ever in the US.
This year, EDAX had a joint booth with SPECTRO; this combination offers a wide range of XRF analysis tools from laboratory µXRF to in-line process control and everything in between! Even though DXC is not considered as a commercial venue, it is very important for any x-ray company to have a presence since “disruptive innovations” in this field are often presented there. One cannot beat the B2B aspect of the DXC, where one can view the latest advancements and discuss technical subjects in detail with each of the vendors.
EDAX and SPECTRO – DXC Booth.
Even though the repetition of some papers (with better graphics though) is a concern to the organizers, there were several interesting papers this year. I have to admit that our own Dr. Bruce Scruggs’ paper was well received and was one of the most interesting presentations. Bruce proposed that by analyzing different parts of a spectrum under different set up conditions (tube energy, filter, etc.) one can achieve a higher degree of accuracy and precision.
Presentation by Dr. Bruce Scruggs.
On the way home thinking of the Spectroscopy article again, the papers that I attended, and my discussions with various vendors, I am excited about the future of the XRF and in particular about our roadmap! The new components on their way to the market will enhance our existing position and help us in the expanding sector of process and in-situ analysis.
The only question in my mind is, do we want to spend a few hundred hours in preparation to conduct a workshop next year that covers the entire subject of counting statists and errors in XRF measurements?
