MS at PittCon

Well, I didn't get to go to PittCon, even though it was only a 4 or 5 hour drive from here. And it looks like I missed out on a lot of cool analytical instrumentation as well as possible job leads.
My favorite company Thermo (read with sarcastic tone) introduced a new type of mass spec. In fact, they claim it is "the first totally new mass analyzer to be introduced to the market in more than 20 years." It is called the LTQ Orbitrap mass spectrometer. To read about its initial research, Anal. Chem. 2000, 72, 1156.

Apparently, the orbitrap takes the place of the quadrupole to separate the ions based on m/z. The orbitrap "has ions spinning around a carefully shaped central electrode while shuttling back and forth over its long axis in harmonic motion at frequencies dependent only on their mass-to-charge ratios," says R. Graham Cooks of Purdue University.
More interesting news from PittCon to come.