In this short review, we describe two problems involving pressure tuning spectroscopy. The first of these concerns reversible pressure induced changes in conformation of the protein lysozyme with consequent changes in its affinity for N-acetyl-D glucosamine. The second problem involves the effect of solvent viscosity on the rate of isomerization of 4, N, N＇-dimethylaminobenzonitrile (DMABN) in a series of linear alcohols, isobutanol and glycerol. An important result of this study is that there can be apparent differences in resistance to shear near a solute molecule for solvents with the same bulk viscosity but different geometries. This concept may be extended to other bulk properties like density, compressibility and dielectric constant.