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MS/MS: Multimedia Shopping for a Mass Spec How to use the Internet to research a mass spectrometer purchase. Kermit K. Murray, Emory University
W
hen Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1990, it was designed for managing information at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (Switzerland) (1). In the intervening decade, the Web has become a popular medium for entertainment, communication, and commerce. Nevertheless, the Web and the greater Internet are serving the needs of scientists as never before. This article will explore an online activity that draws on the full range of Internet resources: researching an instrument purchase. Whether comparison-shopping online or simply locating the phone number of a local sales representative, the Web and other Internet resources can make the process faster and easier.
Getting an education Any important purchase, from a bicycle to a mass spectrometer, is an educational process. The purchaser must be aware of the latest technological developments and should have a basic knowledge of the fundamental workings of the device. For many contemplating a mass spectrometer purchase, the first step will be to brush up on MS basics and learn about the latest instrument developments. Although a trip to the local library is nearly always a useful endeavor, there are a
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Table 1. Mass spectrometer manufacturers’ Web pages1 ABB Extrel http://www.abb.com/us/extrel/
Agilent Technologies http://www.chem.agilent.com/cag/products/ms.html
Q, QQ
IT, Q
AMD Intectra GmbH http://www.amd-intectra.de/
Analytica of Branford, Inc. http://www.aob.com/
H, S
T
Analytical Precision, Ltd. http://www.analyticalprecision.co.uk/
Anglo Scientific Instruments http://www.a-s-i.demon.co.uk/
S
Q
Australian Scientific Instruments Pty., Ltd. http://www.anutech.com.au/asi/
Balzers Instruments http://www.bi.balzers.net/
S
Q
Bear Instruments, Inc. http://www.bearinst.com/
Bergmann Messgeraete Entwicklung KG http://www.bme-bergmann.de/
Q, QQ
T
Bruker Daltonik GmbH http://www.bruker-daltonik.de/
Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. http://www.ciphergen.com/
FT, IT, Q, T
T
Comstock, Inc. http://www.comstockinc.com/
Ferran Scientific, Inc. http://www.ferran.com/
T
Q
Finnigan Corp. http://www.finnigan.com/
GSG Analytical Instruments, Ltd. http://www.gsg-analytical.com/
FT, IT, Q, QQ, H, S
FT, Q, T
HD Technologies, Ltd. http://www.hdtech.demon.co.uk/
Hiden Analytical, Ltd. http://www.hiden.co.uk/
T
Q
Hitachi Instruments, Inc. http://www.hii.hitachi.com/
IonSpec Corp. http://www.ionspec.com/
Q, S
FT
JEOL USA, Inc. http://www.jeol.com/ms/
Kore Technology, Ltd. http://www.kore.co.uk/
H, S
T
Kratos Analytical http://www.kratos.com/
LECO Corp. http://www.leco.com/
T
T
1 THESE LINKS WERE OBTAINED FROM HTTP://BASE-PEAK.WILEY.COM/ AND REF. 4.
number of Web sites with basic MS information. One of the best is Science Hypermedia (http://www.sci
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media.com/). The Encyclopedia of Analytical Instrumentation on this site has a concise and informative overview
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of mass spectrometers, ionization methods, and detectors. Other MS tutorials can be found at the University
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Leybold Inficon, Inc. http://www.inficon.com/
Mass Spectrometry International, Ltd. http://www.mass-spec-international.co.uk/
Q
S
Micromass UK, Ltd. http://www.micromass.co.uk/
National Electrostatics Corp. http://www.pelletron.com/
Q, QQ, H, S, T
O
Nu Instruments, Ltd. http://www.nu-ins.com/
Orbital Sciences Corp. http://www.orbital.com/
S
Q
PDZ Europa, Ltd. http://www.europa-uk.com/
PE Biosystems http://www.pebio.com/
S
Q, QQ, H, T
PerkinElmer Instruments http://www.perkin-elmer.com/ai/ai.nsf/
Pfeiffer Vacuum http://www.pfeiffer-vacuum.com/
Q
Q
Physical Electronics, Inc. http://www.phi.com/
Scientific Analysis Instruments, Ltd. http://www.saiman.demon.co.uk/saiindex.html
T
T
Shimadzu Scientific Instruments http://www.ssi.shimadzu.com/products/
Spectra International http://www.spectra-rga.com/
Q
Q
Spectro Analytical Instruments, Inc. http://www.spectro-ai.com/
Stanford Research Systems http://www.srsys.com/
Q
Q
Thermo Bioanalysis, Ltd. http://www.maldi.com/
Thermolinear Isotopenmassenspektrometer GmbH http://www.thermolinear.de/
T
O
Vacuum Technology, Inc. http://www.vacuumtechnology.com/
Varian, Inc. http://www.varianinc.com/
S
IT, Q
VG Gas Analysis Systems http://www.vggas.com/
FT
Q, QQ Waters Corp. http://www.waters.com/
Q
of Arizona (http://www.chem.arizona. edu/massspec/), the University of Illinois–Chicago (http://chipo.chem.
IT Q
Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance ion trap single quadrupole
uic.edu/web1/ocol/spec/MS.htm), and Widener University (http:// science.widener.edu/svb/massspec/
QQ H S T O
multiple quadrupole hybrid sector time-of-flight other
masspec.html). Web sites at the University of Akron (http://ull.chemistry. uakron.edu/gcms/) and the University
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of the West Indies (http://wwwchem. uwimona.edu.jm:1104/lectures/ coffee.html) focus on the basics of MS coupled to chromatography. Tutorials can also be found on manufacturers’ Web pages. JEOL’s site has several excellent tutorials that focus on organic MS (http://www.jeol. com/ms/). Two of these tutorials contain a comparison of ionization methods and mass analyzers that clearly lays out the positive and negative aspects of each approach. Other tutorials explain mass resolution and elemental composition determination, and several reference data tables are also included. The IonSpec Corporation Web site (http://www.ionspec. com/) includes a brief tutorial on
A recent report estimates that the coverage of the best search sites is 16% of the Web, and many cover less than 10% (2). Northern Light (http://www.northernlight.com/), Snap (http://www.snap.com/), and AltaVista (http://www.altavista. com/) have the greatest coverage. Metasearch sites—such as Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com/), InferenceFind (http://www.infind. com/), MetaCrawler (http://www. metacrawler.com/), and Metafind (http://www.metafind.com/)—can search several different search-engine databases simultaneously. Hierarchical index pages—for example, Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com/), AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com/), Excite
Some manufacturers’ Web pages present basic MS information in new ways. Fourier transform MS (FTMS). Although not associated with a manufacturer, the LC/MS home page (http://www.lcms.com/) is an extensive information resource for scientists contemplating the purchase of such a system. Newcomers to the site are directed to a brief description of onand off-line resources for LC/MS, such as Web sites, books, journal articles, conferences, and short courses. Flowcharts and worksheets aid purchasers in evaluating their research and analysis needs.
Search and directory sites After learning about the latest MS techniques, it will be time to find Web pages for the manufacturers of suitable instruments. There are several general index and search pages that can be used to locate information about mass spectrometers and their manufacturers. However, there is a good chance that a given site will not have all relevant pages indexed.
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(http://www.excite.com/), and Lycos (http://www.lycos.com/)— can help locate resources related to a general topic, but the indexing of specialized topics is rarely complete. Several specialty index sites are devoted to analytical chemistry and MS resources (3). The Analytical Chemistry Springboard at Umeå University in Sweden (http://www. anachem.umu.se/jumpstation.htm) contains indexed pages of analytical chemistry resources sorted by technique. One of these is devoted to MS and includes links to mass spectrometer manufacturers. The MS Internet resource directories at Wiley’s Base Peak site (http://base-peak.wiley.com/ msi/) and at the Scientific Instrument Services site (http://www.sisweb. com/) both have extensive and regularly updated links to company Web pages. A directory of MS manufacturers and suppliers is published annually in Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry (4 ) and is available on-
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line to journal subscribers (http:// interscience.wiley.com).
Manufacturers’ Web pages Manufacturers’ Web sites (see Table 1) have several features in common. Nearly all of them have contact information, including fax, e-mail, and postal addresses. Photographs of mass spectrometers, instrument specifications, and mass spectra round out the information available at a typical Web site. Some sites have application notes or brochures for downloading as portable document format (pdf ) files; other sites take requests for literature by e-mail or through Web-based form submission. Several sites have links to job openings at the company, related MS sites, and calendars of conferences and other events. Some sites have software demonstrations or upgrades available for downloading. Although many manufacturers’ sites simply contain brochure information translated into hypertext, others exploit the capabilities of the Web to present information in new ways. For example, the PerSeptive Biosystems section of the PE Biosystems site (http://www.biospec. pbio.com/biospecasp/) has an extensive set of services that use several Web-specific data formats: a user discussion forum, chat sessions, and instrument diagrams with clickable “hot spots” that open digital movies. These movies show the instrument in use and some interesting computer-generated animations of travel through the mass spectrometer from an ion’s point of view. Another example is the Bruker Daltonik site (http://www.bruker-daltonik.de/), which effectively uses hypertext formatting to link a single set of Web pages in different ways. The mass spectrometers are listed on one page by type (e.g., matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight [MALDI-TOF], electrospray ionization TOF, and FTMS) and on another page by application (e.g., pharmaceuticals, peptides and pro-
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teins, and air-pollution monitoring).
Getting opinions The Internet is an excellent way for a prospective purchaser to gather information about MS techniques and to compare the capabilities of different instruments. It is also an excellent medium for communicating with colleagues around the world. Because scientists were among the early adopters of e-mail, they are quite familiar with electronic one-to-one communication. But the Internet also allows for one-to-many communication in the form of electronic mailing lists and Usenet newsgroups. These formats are useful for getting opinions and advice from the worldwide analytical chemistry community. An electronic mailing list server is a program that keeps track of e-mail addresses for one or more lists. When an e-mail message is sent to an address managed by the server, the program relays it to all of the addresses on the list. Discussion ensues as others on the list respond to the original message. There are several electronic mailing lists that can be used to solicit opinions on MS instruments and techniques, including mailing lists for secondary ion MS (http://www. simsworkshop.org/www/forums /listserve/liststar.html) and thermal ionization MS (http://listserv.syr.edu/ archives/tims-l.html). The plasma chemistry mailing list (http://www. geochemistry.syr.edu/cheatham/ MMClistproc.html) covers inductively coupled plasma (ICP) MS and other topics, and the isotope geochemistry mailing list (http://geology.uvm. edu/geowww/isogeochem.html) covers topics related to isotope ratio MS. The laser ablation mailing list (http://www.immr.tu-clausthal.de/ geoch/labs/icp-ms/lasab.html) includes topics of interest to researchers who use MALDI or laser ablation ICP-MS, and the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities list includes biological MS (http://www. abrf.org/ABRF/ListServe.html).
A second form of Internet-based discussion is Usenet, which is divided into newsgroups devoted to specific topics. For example, the newsgroup devoted to the discussion of MS is called sci.techniques.mass-spec. The somewhat cryptic name simply means that the group is in the science hierar-
Internet resources are transforming scientific commerce as much as they are transforming scientific communication. Instrument specifications can be obtained in minutes rather than days, quotes can be solicited by email, and the advice and opinions of colleagues from around the world can
Electronic mailing lists and newsgroups offer free MS advice. chy, it is a techniques group, and the specific technique is MS. Other useful newsgroups for MS topics are sci.techniques.spectroscopy and sci.chem.analytical. Newsgroup discussions can be accessed directly through a local server or indirectly through one of several Web sites that mediate between the user and Usenet. One of the original Usenet archival sites, Deja.com (http://deja.com/; formerly Deja News), maintains an extensive searchable database of Usenet posts and also has functions for browsing and posting messages. Other Web sites that offer Usenet access are RemarQ (http://www. remarq.com/) and Talkway (http://extra.newsguy.com/). A word of caution is in order regarding the quality of advice obtainable from Internet discussion. Like all free advice, that obtained through Usenet or a mailing list can range from worthless to priceless. It is always a good idea to follow a newsgroup or mailing list for a few weeks to get to know the regular participants before posting. Usenet archival sites can be used to obtain past articles posted by a particular user and to assess the general quality of advice given. Additional information on Usenet can be found at the Internet FAQ Consortium (http://www.faqs. org/usenet/).
Outlook The World Wide Web and other
be obtained in minutes to hours. As the Web continues to expand in scope and function, there will be greater use of movies, virtual-reality simulations, and other multimedia display formats for the display of information on analytical instrumentation (5 ). The quality of online educational materials for analytical instrumentation will continue to improve as more companies realize that selling instruments is inexorably linked to educating prospective buyers. More generally, there is a move toward e-commerce (6 ) and an associated effort to produce more reliable online ratings of products, which may soon come to include analytical instrumentation.
References (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
White, B. Phys. Today 1998, 51 November, 30–36. Lawrence, S.; Giles, C. L. Nature 1999, 400, 107–109. Murray, K. K. J. Mass Spectrom. 1999, 34, 1–9. Lammert, S. A. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 1999, 13, 831–844. Ghanadan, H. Anal. Chem. 1999, 71, 761 A–763 A. Dessy, R. Anal. Chem. 1999, 71, 629 A–631 A.
Kermit Murray (
[email protected]) is an assistant professor of chemistry at Emory University. He is the Internet Resources Editor for the Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry and is editor of the John Wiley & Sons Base Peak mass spectrometry Web resource.
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