There are obviously some aspects of spectroscopy that can be very interesting. We always flouresce mud samples to look for presence of hydrocarbons. There should be something more interesting to do with it both Biologically and Scientifically in Engineering fields.

Which direction are you leaning?


Andy
{I'm not doing a Thesis, just being polite}

Regarding what Oldtimer mentioned, I did some work for about 1 year making/testing "molecular beacons".  They are an interesting application in the biological field using fluorescence, although perhaps beaten to death by now.  Check out www.molecularbeacons.org for an extensive list of articles.  The seminal work was done by a guy named Tyagi at the Public Health Institute.

That's all I had to do, but it can get much more involved. U.V. Spectroscopy, being the basis for much of the Chromatography business can be more precise with indicators and photo luminescence.

Basically that is all I had to do except I had to use a microscope to even see what I was looking for. I would presume that given the broad spectrum of 'excited' conditions, one could see many different colors in one sample. Each individual and differing shaded light in a field of interest with the aid of some polarizing filters or something to diffract the images.

Andy

Sorry to sound dumb here but.. Flourescence Spectroscopy is kind of like turning off all the lights and using a black light, Right? You use "tracers" (for lack of a better word) sometimes to pick specific things like blood stains and other things.

you don't sound dumb. Fluorescence spectroscopy is basically taking a sample and shooting it with a specific wavelength of light, and then finding out what wavelength of light is given off the most by the sample. In my case the wavelength of light given off tells me how the solvent has affected my sample. This is the easiest way to put it. Most of it is to complicated even for me. But with time I will learn more. If any B.S's, MS's or PhD's want to elaborate feel free.