Microtrace at SciX 2025: Detective Microscopy with Christopher Palenik
Microtrace is proud to announce that Christopher Palenik, Ph.D., Senior Research Microscopist, will be presenting at SciX 2025 in Covington, Kentucky at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. His talk, “Detective Microscopy: the science of analyzing an unknown sample,” will be featured on Thursday, October 9, 2025, from 2:50 PM – 3:10 PM. The presentation is part of the session “Scientific Problem Solving: Celebrating the Legacy of Professor John A. Reffner.” SciX 2025, one of the leading conferences for analytical sciences, will take place October 5–10, 2025, bringing together experts from across the globe.
Dr. Palenik’s presentation will explore the challenges of analyzing unknown substances, a problem that standardized methods struggle with. Whether identifying a mystery material, screening for unexpected compounds, or characterizing a sample’s properties, unknown analysis requires critical thinking, adaptability, and scientific creativity. Drawing on Microtrace’s decades of work in law, industry, and fine art, the talk will show how detective microscopy combines observation, experience, and iterative investigation to solve questions that standardized methods cannot.
Dr. Palenik’s presentation will demonstrate how Microtrace applies cutting-edge forensic and analytical approaches to some of the most challenging questions in science and advances the conversation about the future of unknown sample analysis.
Abstract
A client came to our laboratory and told us, “My lab is good at quantification. In fact, we can quantify anything. But in order to do that, first we need to know what something is, and we’re not good at that.” This is a telling statement, because the analysis of an unknown substance falls into its own category, with its own challenges. The subject of unknown analysis comes in many flavors, such as identifying a complete unknown, screening a substance for the presence of an unexpected compound, or characterizing the properties of a material to place constraints on its source. The analytical approach is impacted by numerous factors that include the context of the problem, the nature of the substance, the amount of material available, and ultimately, the properties of the actual sample.
As a result of this complex set of variables, standardized assays are generally inapplicable, impractical, or simply irrelevant. For instance, a compendium assay may be fit and approved for the purpose of monitoring an analyte in a known solution; however, an unknown solution might contain another substance that cross-reacts or inhibits this test. This example illustrates a critical tenet of unknown substance analyses: the analysis of an unknown sample must be conducted with some degree of thoughtful consideration, which moves the analysis from the realm of purely technical test to that of a more fundamental application of the scientific method – one that benefits from observation, knowledge, and experience.
More generally, this requirement of thoughtful consideration extends to every aspect of an unknown analysis, including the initial observation of a sample, method selection, sample preparation, the analytical condition selection, and ultimately, the interpretation of results. Often, this analysis requires an iterative approach, where information garnered from one step of an analysis will inform and lead to the selection of an appropriate next step.
Through examples and drawing from decades of experience addressing questions involving unknown materials from clients in law, industry, and fine art, this talk aims to illustrate the central role that critical thought has and must retain in the scheme of an unknown analysis.
Summary
This presentation explores the challenges faced when conducting analyses of unknown substances.
SciX
SciX is national meeting of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. It is the premier annual conference for scientists in analytical chemistry and its allied sciences. The conference is presented by FACSS (Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies).
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