Dear Readers (Volume 2 Edition 4)

Tony Davies has emailed us from Dortmund.

” .Somewhere you have discussed the issue of GRAMS spectra for presentation….unfortunately I cannot find the comments….anyway I would strongly recommend reading:
ijvs volume1 edition4 section1 feature3 and starting to present the data JCAMP-DX files and then everyone can read them. Which leads me to a second point... how about a search engine for the site? (then I might be able to find the reference I want to make in the future (!)) Anyway, time for tea... Tony Davies (Spelt the Welsh way not the English please!)”

Sorry about the spelling Tony. A search engine is planned as we complete Vol II – see Louise’s comments in the Assistant Editorial. On the publication of spectra question – I have asked you folks on several occasions for your views on the copyright problem and no-one other than Tony has replied. Are you happy to have your spectra published in full digitally or do you want the data degraded?

Brent Harvey has sent a very kind e-mail which raises a point people like me in the UK probably forget.

“I am at a state university in Mexico, where it is hard to find good reference literature on many subjects. I just skimmed through your first volume and was impressed at the practical nature of it. There is a gap in the literature for this type of information – something only personal communication, or expensive training sessions can offer – most details of this nature are the domain of graduate students and not the majority of those who present research results in public, or are principal authors to written publications.”

Dominic Mikulin has e-mailed from Melbourn here in the UK (not Melbourne in Australia) and asked if anyone can point him towards the absorption spectrum of water over the WHOLE electromagnetic spectrum. Folks like us normally know about the range 1 ?100µ but can anyone help with the other bits.

Z.Q. Tian from the University of Xiamen in China has sent several e-mails to which I replied on the Raman spectra of catalysts operating at high temperatures. I pointed out that if you are using a NdYAG powered FTIR you cannot run spectra above 180°C because of black body emission, but you can go higher if you use a filter -see . However, you can’t go much above 270°C. Catalysts fluorescence and absorb the laser hence you must rotate the sample. Has anyone any ideas of techniques that might help Tian. He and his colleagues would like ideally to run up to 700°C!

Tian’s e-mail address is zqtian [at] xmu.edu.cn.

Don’t forget if you contact anyone with solutions to any queries highlighted on this page, then PLEASE copy to me as well.