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02Dear readers,Less than 10 years ago, most of the 900 or so people taking partin the Fall Meeting of the Swiss Chemical Society broke new groundfor themselves. They embarked on a course in chemistry either hereat the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, the venuefor the Fall Meeting, or at other universities in Switzerland or in othercountries. Today they are presenting their work on more than 600posters, in talks and publications. Two thirds of the participants arebelow the age of 30. This new ground has produced competentscientists, who will form the backbone of chemical activities inSwitzerland and beyond its borders. However, support is needed,so that viable routes can be created over this new ground. This supportcomes from private sponsors, including the Metrohm Stiftung(Metrohm Foundation), which this year is giving awards for the bestposters and presentations. We wish the winners the best of luck asthey continue their careers in the academic or industrial world.Metrohm's new instruments offer everything you need to breaknew ground. The analysis of amino acids requires two things: cooledsamples to reduce biological degradation processes drastically and120 °C of heat to carry out postcolumn derivatization in accordancewith USP (Method 1). In this connection, Metrohm nowpresents a series of new components: the 889 IC Sample Center withcooling, the 887 Professional UV/VIS Detector and the 886 ProfessionalThermostat / Reactor, with which as many as 17 amino acidscan be separated on a suitable Metrosep column.To explore new ground, the complete spectrum can be recordedat any point on the chromatogram with the 887 Professional UV/VISDetector. Combined with the intelligent column, the intelligent reactorprovides the reliability that is needed. Of course, the «traditional»components, such as chromate, bromate and heavy metals can alsobe determined reliably with this combination of instruments.Even in a familiar environment there are new things to bedis covered. If you thought titration was characterized only bytradition and not by innovation, thermometric titration will provethe opposite to you. Chemical reactions are linked to a change inthe heat of reaction (enthalpy of reaction) and therefore producea temperature change in the reaction solution. A highly sensitivetemperature sensor can record this. With thermometric titration itis now possible to measure and evaluate the temperature changeinstead of the potential change. Consequently, in critical samples, the859 Titrotherm is sometimes the only possibility to achieve reliableresults.Though chips are widely enjoyed while watching a game on TVand are an integral part of the electronic circuits of the TV itself,they have up to now rarely been used as sensors in titration. Thefirst to be presented by Metrohm are the new ion-selective scIONelectrodes, which are based on a printed circuit. These chips are usedto determine calcium and provide excellent results.Editorial