Wiley InterScience journals now have RSS newsfeeds (marked-up example): Journal of Mass Spectrometry: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/6043 Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/4849 Mass Spectrometry Reviews: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/rss/journal/49879
Category Archives: MS in the News
Autoflex III Mass Spectrometer
Bruker introduced a new version of the Autoflex at the IMSC in Prague. I first saw this instrument in Barcelona at the IMSC 2000 and it still reminds me of the drones in Silent Running.
Mass Spectrometry Terms Final Draft
The third and final draft (PDF) of the Standard Definitions of Terms Relating To Mass Spectrometry document is up on the MS Terms website. This draft is currently undergoing peer review and will be the last draft before publication. It will also be presented as a poster (PDF) next week in Prague at the International …
Mass Spectrometry and Air Security
An article in the Independent suggests that mass spectrometric detection will be central to future airport security.
Calutron Operator’s Story
The Calutron operator in the right foreground of the famous photograph tells her story.
IRMS Used in Tour de France Case
Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) is figuring prominently in the Floyd Landis, winner of the Tour de France. Here’s an article on Testosterone and Doping Control and another on Detection of Epitestosterone Doping by Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry that have some details on the tests.
Scanning Probe Electrospray
Georgia Tech researchers have placed an electrospray source in an AFM tip (via).
GCMS of Absinthe
From Friday’s Times-Picayune (and earlier in the New Yorker (PDF) and Wired News): reverse engineering the liqueur absinthe using GCMS.
Nucleic Acids Research Web Server Issue
All of the articles in the Nucleic Acids Research Web Server issue are available (for free) in both HTML and PDF versions. There are 150 papers that describe various web servers that have databases and software for DNA, RNA, protein sequences, protein structure, data mining and many other areas (via).
Analytical Pulls Out of Spring ACS
The American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry is pulling out of the 2007 ACS Meeting in Chicago next March. Presentations will be moved to Pittcon in late February, also in Chicago.
Acronyms in Mass Spectrometry
Spectroscopy magazine has an updated list of mass spectrometry acronyms.
Commercial DESI Source
Prosolia is now marketing a retrofit Desorption Electrospray Ionization interface.
Peer Reviewing Wikipedia
One of the most often heard responses to complaints about incorrect information in Wikipedia is “Stop complaining and fix it.” But many of those who would be willing to fix it are turned off because Wikipedia can be anti-expert with Byzantine rules of conduct that favor the rude and determined. Fixing Wikipedia doesn’t work if …
Open Access: ACS and ASMS
BioCurious Blog comments on American Chemical Society President E. Ann Nalley’s recent letter arguing against open access to journal articles that report on research funded by the NIH. Nalley objects to the “available after six months” policy, arguing that it will lead to lost revenues. It’s still too early to guage the effect on journal …
Volatiles in Tequila by GC
The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reports on volatiles and ionic species in Tequila, Mezcal, Sotol, and Bacanora using ion chromatography and GC (via). GCMS and IRMS have also been used for Tequila analysis.
Mass Spectrometry at FACSS
There are just a few more days (April 28th) to submit an abstract for the FACSS meeting in Orlando September 24th through 28th, 2006. This will be the first FACSS with official ASMS participation.
Wikipedia: Mass-to-Charge Ratio
There is an interesting mass-to-charge ratio discussion on Wikipedia that illustrates a point I brought up in my ACS presentation last month (see also the Nature/Wikipedia/Britanica imbroglio). Wikipedia is open to editing by anyone and is peer reviewed only if ones peers choose to review and edit it. It will be interesting to see whether …
Mass Spectrometry for Surgeons
MIT Technology Review has an article on spatially resolved mass spectrometry and the potential for real-time tissue profiling during surgery. Mass spectrometrists may be wearing scrubs in the near future. (via).
MetaBlogging
I didn’t know that Chemical and Engineering News was blogging the 2006 Atlanta ACS meeting until I got a rare trackback citing my presentation from last week. Nature Publishing was there as well with Nature Newsblog and the scepticalchymist.
Blogs for Analytical Chemists
Here’s my presentation “Blogs for Analytical Chemists” from the spring 2006 American Chemical Society meeting in Atlanta (presented March 29th).