Bigger Spectrometer to Study Life's Smaller Nuts and Bolts
15 June 2010
Florida State University is planning to build one of the world's most powerful mass spectrometers. The ultrahigh-field mass spectrometer, newly funded by the National Science Foundation, will allow researchers to study in ever greater detail proteins and other molecules-the nuts and bolts of biology, the environment and renewable energy-and push the boundaries of such analyses.
NSF's Division of Chemistry has dedicated $17.5 million ($15 million of this is out of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding) to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at FSU. The facility will build a high-field mass spectrometer over the next four to five years.
"This grant will give us the opportunity to see the chemical and molecular world in unprecedented detail-sort of like HDTV compared to ordinary TV," said Alan Marshall, director of NHMFL's Ion Cyclotron Resonance Program.
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