{"id":375,"date":"2018-08-30T14:12:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T19:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mccrone.test\/?p=375"},"modified":"2020-07-09T13:45:36","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T18:45:36","slug":"understanding-small-gretchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mccrone.com\/understanding-small-gretchen\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Small \u2013 Gretchen Shearer"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you can see it, it\u2019s not really small. <\/i>For Senior Research Chemist Gretchen Shearer, Ph.D., that\u2019s often the first lesson for clients who are new to microscopy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you can perceive with your eye without magnification \u2013 once you put that under the microscope, it\u2019s pretty large,\u201d Dr. Shearer says. In her role with McCrone Associates, Dr. Shearer often finds herself investigating and identifying unknown substances. She and her colleagues are often asked to identify materials given a sample of just a few particles.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the best way to do that is take an even closer look.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about small, we\u2019re talking about small particles,\u201d Dr. Shearer says. \u201cWe can do one or two or three analyses just on that particle! But there\u2019s an even smaller element, the actual chemical bonds on elements that tell us what they are. And their function \u2014 what they do in life, or in an industry \u2014 is also based on those chemical bonds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That means the best approach to particle identification is often to look closer than the particle itself \u2014 at the chemical bonds that determine the particle\u2019s composition and dictate its function.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deciding the best way to identify those chemical bonds means solving a unique puzzle. And that\u2019s just what Dr. Shearer and her colleagues love to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite genre of literature is mysteries,\u201d Dr. Shearer says. \u201cEver since I was a kid I\u2019ve loved the problem-solving aspect of science\u2026 The forensic aspect. I love the fact that every day brings a different sample.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And since no two particle identification projects are the same, the puzzles are a little different every day as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

McCrone scientists work collaboratively, addressing each new mystery to the combined of experience available across their teams. When a new sample arrives at the investigative lab, Dr. Shearer says, chances are good that she or one of her colleagues will have seen something similar before. That combined experience makes for a helpful starting point. And once the team has formed a plan, it\u2019s time to gather information.<\/span><\/p>\n

Materials scientists have several techniques available to study samples at the chemical-bond level, including not just standard microscopy, but infrared microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and x-ray diffraction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those different scientific methods give us different pictures \u2014 different parts of the puzzle,\u201d Dr. Shearer says. The more pictures she and her colleagues gather of the chemical bonds in a substance, the easier it becomes to solve the puzzle and identify the substance.<\/span><\/p>\n

And because these measurements are made at the microscopic level, that\u2019s just as true if the substance in question is only a single particle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Gretchen L. Shearer is a senior research chemist at McCrone Associates and an instructor with Hooke College of Applied Sciences. She is responsible for chemical analysis using infrared spectroscopy, Raman microspectroscopy, gas and liquid chromatography, polarized light microscopy, and microchemical techniques. Gretchen holds a Ph.D. in Archaeological Chemistry from the University of London, and completed a fellowship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has been with McCrone since 1995.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you can see it, it\u2019s not really small. For Senior Research Chemist Gretchen Shearer, Ph.D., that\u2019s often the first lesson for clients who are new to microscopy. \u201cWhat you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":276,"featured_media":377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1973],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnderstanding Small | The McCrone Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We know scale. 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