The monthly Brooks Applied Labs (BAL) newsletter contained many interesting and information articles over the past year. To start off 2020, here's a recap of the most popular newsletter pieces from the past year (click on link for the full article):

Choosing the Appropriate Method for Arsenic Speciation
When routine analytical testing indicates that a sample contains elevated levels of arsenic, more detailed characterization is often warranted. Performing arsenic speciation analysis - where specific molecular forms of arsenic are individually quantified - is often critical; however, if you don't select the most appropriate analytical method, you can end up without the data you need or paying too much for data that is not helpful. {January 2019}

Selenium and Mercury in Fish Collected Near Power Plants
BAL's data was featured prominently in this journal article where the authors presented a study of mercury (Hg), methylmercury (MeHg), and selenium (Se) in muscle tissue and otoliths from 12 species of fish collected from locations influenced by power plant wastewater. {August 2019}

Rare Earth Elements 
Rare earth elements (REE) exist "hidden" in water and solid materials all around us. BAL has developed analytical methods to support not just trace, but ultra-trace (ppq-level) quantitation of REEs using column chelation paired with inductively coupled plasma triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (CC-ICP-QQQ-MS). {October 2019}