Analytical science – a discipline between chemistry and metrology

After Karel Eckschlager (Prague) introduced information theory into analytical chemistry in the mid 60s, its usage and importance to the discipline has grown exponentially. One wonders whether it is the chicken or the egg in this case as well, but without informatics the immense amount of data produced in analytical measurements today could not be digested, filtered, and understood. Klaus Doerffel (Deceased, formerly of Leipzig) was an active and driving participant in the development of informatics and its use in analytical chemistry. He has summarized the field up to 1995 in a work entitled: “Analytical science – A discipline between chemistry and metrology.” The work is too large to permit full publication in this journal. Therefore, the important points are summarized here, and the full text can be obtained by written request to the Editorial Office. Received: 10 February 1998 / Accepted: 12 February 1998