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WWW ChemTools
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- Ion Formula by Mol. Weight
- Isotope Pattern Calculator
- Mass Loss Calculator
- Periodic e-Table
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WWW BioTools
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- EMBL Peptide Search - protein ID from peptide mass and sequence data
- FindMod - post-translational modifications by peptide mass
- GlycanMass - oligosaccharide mass from structure
- GlycoMod - oligosaccharide structures from mass
- GlycoSuiteDB - search database with oligosaccharide mass
- Javascript Protein Digest - peptide digest masses
- Javascipt Fragment Ion Generator for peptides
- Mascot Search - peptide mass and sequence tools
- Mowse - protein identification from peptide MS data
- Protein Prospector - mass spectra interpretation tools
- PROWL - identification of proteins from MS data
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past feature
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New Airport Security Measures
New technology at airports will enable authorities to check for drugs, explosives, and bombs with unprecedented speed and sensitivity. New scanners, so sensitive that they can tell if you even touched these object days ago, may soon be in airports. The walk-through scanners are similar to metal detectors introduced some 30 years.
Barringer Technologies and Ion Track Instruments in the United States have built a device able to detect and identify microscopic amounts of over 30 explosive or narcotic substances. When you step through the device a light puff of air ruffles your clothes. That air is sucked into a sample-preconcentrator. Ion mobility mass spectrometry is then used to determine exactly what "heavy" substances are present. The systems can detect a few parts per trillion of explosives or drugs, microscopic traces which cling to clothes and skin even when people think they're clean.
Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is capable of separating ionic species at atmosphere pressure and has found many applications in detecting chemical warfare agents, explosives, and drugs. Miniaturization of the instruments has dramatically widened the use of the devices. Customs officials in some countries already use similar products to scan checked baggage. Dogs are also used for such purposes but are trained to detect a limited set of substances.
However, the makers of the human scanners concede that sometimes "false positives" can arise. A case in point is the detection of drug traces on currency carried by an unsuspecting passenger. The main drawbacks of the technology are the speed of analysis. The Sentinel, built be Barringer Technologies, presently requires seven seconds to scan each passenger. The cost of each unit will also be a barrier to its widespread use in the short term.
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MS Journals
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- European Mass Spectrom.
- Intl. J. of Mass Spectrom.
- J. American Society of MS
- J. Mass Spectrometry
- J. MS Society of Japan
- Mass Spectrometry Reviews
- Rapid Communications in MS
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Science Journals
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- Analyst
- Analytical Chemistry
- Nature
- New Scientist
- Science
- Scientific American
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Literature Search
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- Beilstein Abstracts
- ChemWeb
- Current Contents - ISI
- PubMed - NCBI
- PubScience - DOE
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