Special Issues-05-02-2004

American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) board member O. David Sparkman reviews the past year and summarizes the latest updates in mass spectrometry.

Spectroscopy columnist and MS expert Ken Busch presents an updated glossary of industry acronyms -- a handy guide for the seasoned analyst as well as those new to the field.

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is a widely used technique for the rapid examination of compound purity. The amount of qualitative information, however, is limited to the retention factor of compounds. The technique described here enables the direct determination of TLC plates by MALDI MS.

The 52nd annual ASMS conference will be held May 23-27, 2004 in Nashville, TN. Like its predecessors, this year's meeting will be geared toward promoting and disseminating knowledge of MS.

New developments in matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) technology enable decoupling of the ionization source from the time-of-flight mass analyzer for operation at atmospheric pressure (AP-MALDI). This technique also can be integrated with other types of mass analyzers, such as the ion trap.