Spectroscopy

(noun)

use of light, sound or particle emission to study matter. The emissions provide information about the properties of the matter under investigation. The device often used for such analysis is a spectrometer, which records the spectrum of light emitted (or absorbed) by a given material.

Related Terms

Examples of Spectroscopy in the following topics:

  • Crystallographic Analysis

    • Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and x-ray crystallography have become the methods of choice for understanding three-dimensional protein structures.

  • Metabolomics

    • Concurrently, NMR spectroscopy, which was discovered in the 1940s, was also undergoing rapid advances.