• Carbon Dating of Cave Art - Mass Spectrometry dates prehistoric cave paintings in southern France...


• On the Nose - MS shows mice prefer to mate with partners that express different MHC genes...


• Special Delivery - A mass spectrometer is delivered to the international space station...


• Molecular Hitchhiking on a Comet - Mass spectrometry shows molecules can survive an impact with Earth...


• Mass Spectrometry Unearths Mexico's Maize - Accelerator MS provides evidence of early agriculture in Mexico...


• Mass of the Universe -Scientists may finally have a reliable estimate of the mass of the universe...


• Airport Security - Ion mobility mass spectrometry to detect narcotics at airports...


• MS at the Olympics - Mass spectrometry keeps the athletes honest...


• more past features...

• Ion Formula by Mol. Weight
• Isotope Pattern Calculator
• Mass Loss Calculator
• Periodic e-Table

• 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

 

Mass Spectrometry Solves Murder Mystery

A Florida jury has found a former Florida medical examiner guilty of murdering his wife by lethal injection nearly 10 years ago.

Dr. William Sybers was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Kay. Sybers, 68, who retired to Malahat, British Columbia in Canada worked as a district medical examiner and had a private pathology practice when his 52-year-old wife died at their Panama City Beach, Fla., home. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement began investigating the next day after a tip from a former colleague that Sybers had ordered no autopsy.

Sybers, who did not testify in his defense, told investigators he was abiding by his wife's wishes but subsequently agreed to an autopsy. By then, the body had been embalmed and the autopsy failed to detect a cause of death.

That changed in late 1999 when Dr. Kevin Ballard, Director of Research and Analytic Toxicology at the National Medical Service in Pennsylvania found evidence of succinylcholine, a drug used to paralyse patients during surgery in the embalmed tissue.

Ballard testified he used mass spectrometry to detect succinylmonocholine derived from the drug when it degrades. The FBI's laboratory confirmed the drug was present in tissue by the same procedure.

Defence witnesses criticized the Pennsylvania laboratory's procedures and suggested the tissue samples may have been contaminated. They testified Kay Sybers died naturally from cardiac arrhythmia caused by a severe asthma attack.

But the autopsy also disclosed two needle marks on Mrs. Sybers arm. Mr. Sybers told investigators his wife was having chest pains and he tried to draw blood for analysis but botched the job. The syringe would have been conclusive proof that the drug had been injected but it was never found.

 

• 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

• Analyst
• Analytical Chemistry
• Nature
• New Scientist
• Science
• Scientific American

• Beilstein Abstracts
• ChemWeb
• Current Contents - ISI
• PubMed - NCBI
• PubScience - DOE

• Africa
• Asia
• Australia / NZ
• Canada
• Europe
• Mexico / Carribean
• South America
• USA