A shared mass spectrometer with compound-specific capabilities to support innovative research in biology, the environment and geology

Stable isotope studies have huge and increasing relevance to environmental studies, many of which form the backbone of of understanding Australia's terrestrial and marine systems. We cannot sustainably manage these systems without full understanding. Compound-specific isotope analysis yields much more information than is available through bulk methods. The problem has been that the separations were crushingly labour-intensive and employed complex wet chemistry. New methods reduce the work-load enough to make compound-specific studies possible. And in the case of carbon isotopes, new liquid chromatographic technology removes the need for derivatisations which dilute the natural signal and can render it unusable.