Two scientific conferences with which Rigaku has a long history return as live or hybrid events this summer: the American Crystallographic Association’s annual meeting (ACA) in Portland, Oregon and the Denver X-ray Conference (DXC) in Rockville, Maryland. We hope to see many of you there!

In this issue, we present an article on battery research and the third installment in Rigaku Analytical Device’s podcast series on the opioid crisis, along with the news about the use of the ResQ CQL handheld Raman analyzer for the characterization of a range of hazardous materials.

We are also sharing an informative article from the Summer 2021 issue of the Rigaku Journal about the instrumental requirements for collecting high-quality X-ray diffraction data.

The high-resolution images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope have been all over the news and social media recently. Although it has only in operation for a short while, the data this telescope has been providing is reshaping our thoughts about the known universe.

In late August, Rigaku’s thermal analysis division is presenting another webinar, this time about using STA, DSC, TMA and evolved gas analysis to study elastomers. We also present two XRF application notes, one featuring WDXRF analysis of recycled solid fuel and another about the use of EDXRF to monitor sulfur content in gypsum.