7. Conclusion and outlook

The use of optical activity, in particular through circular dichroism, is now part of the physico-chemical approaches classically used in chemistry and especially life science laboratories. The development of various genomics programs, with the production of more and more proteins, has given new impetus to this technique. Future developments in this method certainly lie in the use of synchrotron radiation as a new light source: under these conditions, the light is much more intense than that provided by conventional sources, and what's more, this light is naturally polarized. This greatly improves the signal-to-noise ratio, enabling faster acquisitions, with samples containing less material. Another major advantage of using synchrotron radiation is the ability to work in the vacuum ultraviolet (for wavelengths below 180 nm). In these regions, new bands are observed, providing additional...