From quarry fingerprints to bat-driven salt damage and hidden wall paintings, portable X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, and isotope analysis are revealing how Angkor Wat was built and what threatens it today.

Yukihiro Ozaki of Kwansei Gakuin University received the Raman Lifetime Award at ICORS 2026 in Istanbul for outstanding lifetime contributions to Raman spectroscopy.

At SciX, Alessandro De Giacomo explained how airborne LIBS can produce quantitative results. Instead of relying on reference measurements, the method draws calibration directly from the measured signal, which sidesteps the drone’s positioning and motion problems.

At SciX, Jürgen Popp explains how miniaturized optical spectroscopy could add molecular data to wearable health tracking, which could enable earlier disease detection and a shift toward prevention.

At SciX, Jay Kitt describes the experiment he ran on his own that launched his cytochrome c research, and explains why putting a number on peptide–lipid interactions matters.

The following articles are the most accessed digital object identifier (DOI) manuscripts for Spectroscopy and LCGC International during the month of September 2026. Nine articles are individually ranked here by DOI page views; the third-highest entry (186 views) was recorded against the bare journal-level DOI rather than an individual article and is therefore not attributable to a single manuscript.

Jürgen Popp explains how head and neck surgeons in Jena use a Raman probe to locate tumor borders, why the technique could replace frozen section biopsies, and why optical tools must adapt to clinical workflows rather than the other way around.

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, built on the weak overtone and combination-band absorptions first exploited commercially in the 1970s, is now being reshaped by chip-scale MEMS sensors, rapid field calibration methods, and increasingly capable chemometric and machine-learning models.

This Atomic Perspectives column explains how high-resolution continuum source graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry (HR-CS-GFMAS) quantifies extractable organic fluorine (EOF) as a PFAS sum parameter, complementing LC-MS/MS target analysis, with applications to German river sediments, bean plants, and fluorinated polymer sealing materials.

Alessandro De Giacomo argues that grounding students in scientific fundamentals, rather than rushing them toward applications, is what makes breakthrough ideas possible.

Top content published this week includes coverage from the 2026 SciX Conference, which took place in Sparks, Nevada, from October 4–9.

In this SciX interview segment, Siddhartha Das explains how his group’s simulations revealed a nanochannel scenario that produces energy and boosts flow at the same time. This overturns the classical electroviscous trade-off without breaking the laws of thermodynamics.

At SciX, Juergen Popp explains why a new infection test must fit hospital workflows, outperform the gold standard, and cost about a euro or less per test. He also describes a host-response test that could change how emergency departments treat suspected sepsis.

Jay Kitt of the University of Utah explains that his group’s platform for quantitative Raman measurements inside chromatographic particles didn’t come from a search for signal enhancement. It grew out of a decade of chromatography and biochemistry research.

In this segment of his SciX interview, Marc Porter explains why every step matters when measuring at picomolar and femtomolar levels, and how switching to proteinase K helped make his group’s tuberculosis work more clinic-ready.

In this clip from our SciX interview with Siddhartha Das, he describes his team’s “eureka moment”: the discovery that the ion distribution inside a polymer layer shapes how water moves under an electric field. He also explains why experimental confirmation is still years away.

SciX 2026, the annual conference presented by the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS), ran October 4–9, 2026, at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada. The program spanned atomic and molecular spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, chemometrics, and bioanalysis. This report follows the meeting day by day, from Monday's clinical Raman plenaries to Friday's closing talks, drawing on the online program and Spectroscopy coverage of award winners, highlighting efforts to move Raman, SERS, LIBS, and single-particle ICP-MS toward clinical, environmental, and field use.

According to Thermo Fisher Scientific, their ARL X’TRA Pro diffractometer is designed for around-the-clock quantitative phase analysis of 50 to more than 100 samples per day.

At SciX, Alessandro De Giacomo explains how a 35-member international jury chose three papers: one on correct ICCD use and two applications using LIBS and LA-ICP-MS. He also explains what the selections say about the field.

At SciX 2026, Siddhartha Das explains how graphene can be used to show how atom-level interactions between ions and water decide what passes through a membrane and what stays behind.

Four finalists for the FACSS Innovation Award presented on the afternoon of October 8, 2026, at SciX 2026. Their work spanned drone-mounted laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), a touch-and-sound virtual reality system for blind scientists, polarized infrared (IR) imaging of shape memory polymers, and an ultrasound-activated plasmonic nanoplatform aimed at Parkinson’s disease.

At SciX 2026, Marc Porter explained why surface-enhanced Raman scattering can outperform fluorescence assays. He also described how a protein-denaturing step rescued his team’s tuberculosis test from a major loss in sensitivity.

At SciX 2026, Alessandro De Giacomo explains why laser–matter interaction deserves more attention and how nanoparticle size forces a trade-off between sensitivity and practical tagging.

At SciX 2026, Thursday morning’s “New Challenges in Chemometrics” session questioned long-held assumptions, from reliance on autonomous model selection to the restriction of spectral data to real numbers.

The inaugural Peter Griffiths Award winner discusses deep low-frequency Raman measurements through wax and what remains before clinical breast-imaging use.

The 2026 Lester W. Strock Award recipient discusses how single-particle ICP-MS can distinguish engineered and natural nanoparticles and track metalloid pollution downwind of industrial sites.

Top content published this week include an examination of how near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is being changed by machine learning and the final part in a panel discussion on spectroscopy education.

The recipient of the ACS Award in Spectrochemical Analysis discusses how surface-enhanced Raman scattering became a practical diagnostic readout and how close it is to clinical use.