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Mª A. MARTÍN Y COLS. ANAL. REAL ACAD. NAL. FARM.

mizes and applies tools of a very varied nature (chemical, physical,
matemathical, biological,…) to measurement processes that lead to par-
tial or global information on various systems, as required by scientists or
the society. Indeed, most recent advances in science, and in the Life Sci-
ences in particular, come from the availability of new analytical tech-
niques. Although many of these techniques will be focused on the fields
of genomics and proteomics, it has been pointed out that analytical chem-
ists must overcome the temptation to forget other fields, perhaps less
spectacular but nonetheless essential.

The importance attributed to Analytical Chemistry by chemists
working in other subjects in steadily increasing, and a recent study re-
veals that 82% of 150,000 members of the American Chemical Society
consider that its study is essential, which is surpassed only by Organic
Chemistry with 88%. Past criticisms related to the scarce relationship of
Analytical Chemistry with real problems seem overcome and the rele-
vance of Analytical Chemistry to society is well established, with devel-
oped countries devoting around 6% of their resources to activities related
to the various aspects of measurement. A few fields of particular social
relevance are clinical and forensic chemistry, drug monitoring, environ-
mental analysis, quality control in the chemical, agrochemical and phar-
maceutical industries and the analysis of works of art and archaeological
materials. In fact, the demand of analytical data has been proposed as an
indicator of the degree of development of a society.

The evolution of analytical instrumentation can be considered by
studying which are the most widespread techniques. In this regard, 75%
of laboratories have analytical balances, 50-75% have pH-meters, gas
chromatographs and VIS spectrophotometers, 25-50% have UV-VIS and
IR spectrophotometers, atomic absorption spectrometers and liquid
chromatographs. Finally, around 10% of the laboratories have access to
particle analizers, thermal differential analysis, NMR and GC-MS. In
terms of investment, the 9,000 million € spent by EU countries in the
year 2000 went primarily to IR, MS, GC and LC systems, with a large
investment also being made in quality and automation.

Analytical Chemistry in Spain has reached a good level of produc-
tivity. A recent comparison of the analytical publications of EU countries

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