The Article Daily

One of the many things that science offers, or at least makes a good attempt to, is the explanation of things that do not make sense. In other words, it puts a theory into practise and seeks out the result previously predicted or discovers something completely new. This basic introduction into the world of science has made it possible to explain and change the way we work and has managed to rationalise the way we think.

There are different branches of science, which most people will know as chemistry, biology and physics. Within these groups are further branches that target and concentrate on a particular area of expertise. Scientific study sees change rapidly more than any other field of study, one in particular is the field of biochemistry and biotechnology. Biotechnology is technology based on biology, focussing on agriculture, food science and medicine. Refined experiments and chemical analysis are just a few of the methods used for biotechnological labs.

An interesting part of scientific experimentation is the use of colour to separate and analyse complex mixtures, known as chromatography. This is usually seen in the world of chemistry whereby analysing solutions is an important element of testing chemicals, chromatography helps to determine much of the elements needed to identify its consistency and solution. These can go two ways, it can be preparatory or analytical, both of which measure for different results.

Preparatory deals with separating a mixture of its components for further use and testing. This is in some respect known as purification. Analytical uses a smaller amount of materials and measures the relative amounts of analytes in a mixture. Both of these methods are not mutually exclusive from each other.

History will tell that this process derives from its literal meaning of colour writing began its usage and hearing its name more in the earlier part of the 20th century. Chromatography itself spans from the 19th century and is still a strong scientific study that plays an important part in our lives. This was predominantly used for separating plant pigmentation such as chlorophyll. As new forms of chromatography developed during the 1930s and 1940s, new techniques were used in biochemistry and for a wider range of separation processing and chemical analysis.

Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet, Russian botanist, was the true pioneer of how part of chromatography techniques are used today. He used columns of calcium carbonate for separating plant pigmentation when he had spent the first decade researching chlorophyll. The modern technique followed suit with the work of Archer John Porter Martin and Richard Laurence Millington Synge, with their work focusing on the principles of partition chromatography. This then later branched into many different methods such as paper, gas and high performance liquid chromatography.

It soon became clear that this kind of technology was beginning to grow rapidly, with researchers finding that the underlying principles of Tsvets method could be applied in many different ways, which then gave way to many different varieties. Further advances continued to see the improvement of technical performances meaning that similar molecules could be separated.

These techniques have continued to advance and improve as the years have passed, allowing complex solutions and mixtures to be separated with precision. Similar components such as protein can be separated even if it varies by a single amino acid. In the field of biotechnology the need for purification and accurate chemical analysis depends upon the techniques of chromatography; therefore it is essential that this stays a focussed method of experimentation.

Anna Stenning is an expert on biotechnology and their use of chromatography.