The newest -omics: Digging Into the Science of That Old-Book Smell in the New York Times and Material Degradomics: On the Smell of Old Books in Analytical Chemistry.
Tag Archives: research
MIT Mandates Open Access to Research Publications
The MIT faculty has a adopted a policy that mandates open access to their scholarly publications. This follows similar moves by Harvard and Stanford (via).
RNA Biology to Require Wikipedia Publication
Starting in 2009, the journal RNA Biology will require that authors submitting to their RNA Families section also submit a Wikipedia page summarizing the work. Both will be peer reviewed. For example, Jones, et al. RNA Biology 6, 1-4 (2009) has a corresponding Wikipedia page SmY RNA (via).
MALDI of a Copper Age Mummy
MALDI TOF mass spectrometry has been used to identify the clothing of Ötzi the Iceman (in RCM; hat tip to MW).
Mass Spectrometer Confirms Mars Water
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander thermal and evolved-gas analyzer ( TEGA) has identified water in a mars soil sample.
FBI’s New Technology Revolutionizes DNA Analysis
From National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, January 28, 2008: “The newest wrinkle [in forensic DNA analysis] involves a rather innocuous-looking machine called a mass spectrometer, which is, in essence, a glorified scale that weighs individual molecules.” (audio and transcript)
Academic Interviews
Excellent and refreshingly candid advice on academic job interviews (via).
MALDI Sample Preparation: The Ultra Thin Layer Method
A video tutorial article in the Journal of Visualized Experiments on MALDI sample preparation from Brian Chait’s Mass Spectrometry Group at Rockefeller University. JoVE is an online biological sciences video journal.
Really Old Peanuts
Preceramic Adoption of Peanut, Squash, and Cotton in Northern Peru – agriculture, archaeology, and accelerator mass spectrometry.
T-rex Protein Shows Link to Birds
Analyses of Soft Tissue from Tyrannosaurus rex Suggest the Presence of Protein and Protein Sequences from Mastodon and Tyrannosaurus Rex Revealed by Mass Spectrometry (via).
LCMS Finds Cocaine on Euros
This Analyst article on LCMS for the determination of drug contamination on Irish euro banknotes by Jonathan Bones, Mirek Macka and Brett Paull at the Dublin City University National Center for Sensor Research has been getting quite a bit of press. Trace cocaine was found on all 45 bank notes tested. This is perhaps not …
Mass Spectrometry IDs Fake Fur
It isn’t clear what test was performed, but this story about fake fur has been the biggest mass spectrometry item of the past week. One possibility is MALDI MS of keratin, as described in Identification and Quantification of Feathers, Down, and Hair of Avian and Mammalian Origin Using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry by …
Stardust Mass Spectrometry
Organics Captured from Comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft in the December 15 Science.
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.