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VOL. 69 (3), LA QUÍMICA ANALÍTICA

for the 1993-1999 period shows that Spain is the third country in number
of publications, after Germany and the United Kingdom, with an 83% in-
crease with respect to the 1986-1992 period. However, the situation is
somewhat less satisfactory if the quality of the journals (in terms of their
impact rate factor) is considered, since Spain occupies the eighth place in
a classification based on the average impact rate factors of analytical
publications, after Sweden, Netherland, Denmark, Belgium, United
Kingdom, Austria and Finland, but well above important and more popu-
lated countries like Italy, Germany and France. This growth is undoubt-
edly due to the huge effort of researchers in universities and other re-
search centers and to improvements in research funds and instrumenta-
tion. The establishment of centralized instrumentation services (Servicios
Generales, CAIs) by most Universities has also helped Spanish research-
ers to gain access to expensive equipment, which would have otherwise
remained out of their reach.

We are currently witnessing a new revolution, where instrumental
improvements will allow feats such as in vivo automated analytical de-
terminations. This and other technologies need not and will not involve
the suppression of human participation in the gathering and critical
evaluation of analytical data, which will continue to be essential.

****

Hace ya muchos años, en los umbrales del siglo XX, Marie Curie
señaló: en la vida no hay que temer a nada, todo es solamente cuestión
de comprenderlo. La Química Analítica es una ciencia que actúa como
catalizador, como llave, en ese proceso de comprensión [1]. En los últi-
mos cincuenta años, el progreso y la evolución de la Química Analítica
ha sido de tal magnitud que se ha pasado de alcanzar límites de detección
de ìg a pg, en tiempos de análisis que hacia 1950 se prolongaban durante
días a las determinaciones que se llevan a cabo en la actualidad en déci-
mas de segundo.

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