Escalation of the Table-Top NMR Spectrometers War!

At the EUROISMAR Conference that is currently in progress in Berlin (Germany), one of the principal news is the presentation of Fourier 80, a new Bruker table-top NMR spectrometer operating at 80 MHz. It is the first Bruker instrument in this category, presented after a long period of rumors of the kind "Bruker is also working on it". From the outside, the look is not much dissimilar (by size and weight) from the other such instruments on the market. Its specifications, read out from the brochure distributed at EUROISMAR (see this scanned copy) are not bad; the resolution (0.5 Hz) is sufficient, though lower than comparable-field instruments of the 1980's, while the sensitivity is about 50% higher than then (200:1 for 1H-only system, 150:1 for 1H/13C on 1% EtB in a 5mm sample tube). The instrument comes in 1H and 1H/13C versions; other nuclei are possible, it seems, though subject to discussion. It is not clear whether, starting with 1H only, the instrument is upgradable to more nuclei. Overall, it is a good new entry to this highly competitive category, I would say.

In a subsequent entry I will try a general and maybe comparative reflection on the whole category of the table-top spectrometers. They now include, apart from the new Bruker product, the Spinsolve 60 and 80 MHz from Magritek, the NMReady 60 MHz and 100e/100PRO 100 MHz from Nanalysis (their NEW 100 MHz was presented yesterday at the ACS meeting in San Diego), and the Pulsar 60 MHz from Oxford Instruments.

AIP - Applied Inverse Problems Conference in Grenoble

This was the first time I have attended this interesting and large international meeting, attended by about 500 participants. It consists of plenary lectures (exclusively invited) and many Minisymposia dedicated to various applied topics.

This year it was held in Grenoble (France) there was a Minisymposium on NMR Applications: Inverse Problems and Methods, organized by my friends Prof. Villiam Bortolotti and Prof. Fabiana Zama from University of Bologna. Like quite a few other people around the world (including myself and my collegues), they are interested in the Inverse Laplace Transform (ILT) methods that would be so helpful in NMR relaxometry, were it not for the fact that they tend to be ill-defined and unstable. They have invited me to deliver a talk on Realistic simulated MR data (virtual phantoms) and the development of IP algorithms.

Glimpses from the 11th FFC NMR Relaxometry Conference

The periodic Fast Field Cycling NMR Relaxometry meeting is dedicated mostly, but not exclusively, to NMR relaxation processes as a function of magnetic field strength and/or to nuclear magnetization evolution in variable magnetic fields.

The meeting is bi-annual. It started 22 years ago in Torino (Italy) and was initially held there, for several years. Later it became itinerant, though remaining prevalently European. It is a small, highly specialized meeting, typically counting around 100 participants.

This year it was held in Pisa (Italy) and the participants count was 90, coming from 22 Countries (!). This is a shot of the spectacular sunset we have observed during the rooftop social dinner:

Comparing with some previous editions of this meeting that I have attended, my impression was that there is now less preoccupation with the often complex relaxation theories, and a growing accent on the expanding number of practical NMR relaxometry applications. A healthy tendency, I believe, even though the theory is important, too!

I have presented a lecture signed by me and my colleague Ester Maria Vasini about the expected (and corrigible) effects of FFC sequences on the relaxation times distributions in poly-dispersed (continuous and/or discrete) samples with differently relaxing components. The talk title was Field Cycling Relaxometry Of Polydispersed Samples: Some Special Aspects. It is a topic that we believe to be important when attempting to apply the FFC technique to complex and/or heterogeneous samples.

2019 edition of the MMCE Conference

The MMCE stands for Magnetic Moments in Central Europe and it is an NMR meeting held every two years in one the Central and/or Eastern European countries. The 2019 edition was held in Prague (Czech Republic). The participants count oscillates quite a bit, generally around 100, and they come mostly - but not exclusively - from the Central European countris. Participants from Italy, Austria, Germany, Scandinavia, England and other places often show up. The Conference language is English, of course.

I like this Meeting for its explicitly educational mission statement (click the link and read the Mission Statement on the first page for details) and relatively low cost. The participant, especially the young ones, definitely benefit from participating and there is always a lot to learn for everybody, even those who had the illusion that they knew it all already (obviously, I am referring to myself 😄).

In this edition of the Meeting I was asked to prepare a Tutorial on Spin Systems in Magnetic Resonance. Since the time allocated for the presentation was too limited (45'), I could not cover the whole topic (not by a long shot), giving just a kind of extended introduction. This is something I would like to do better and in more detail, but the way I see it, it requires either a full Course or a book. In any case, if you are interested, use the link to see the slides. I will be returning to this topic again and again.

For a complete list of all entries since 2005, see the running INDEX