https://gregladen.com/blog/2007/12/05/blod-from-stones/ Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:30:44 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 https://gregladen.com/blog/2007/12/05/blod-from-stones/#comment-1400 Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:30:44 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2007/12/05/blod-from-stones/#comment-1400 I was joking about the ions. But I do appreciate the description!

]]> https://gregladen.com/blog/2007/12/05/blod-from-stones/#comment-1399 Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:38:46 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2007/12/05/blod-from-stones/#comment-1399 “The researchers used several precision analytical techniques, including time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry.”GL: Nope, I’m not buying it. Ions are everywhere….I don’t know if you were joking or don’t really know, but “time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry” is not searching for ions any more than Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is looking for magnets in your body. Mass spectrometers take molecules and give them a charge (sometimes after breaking them into smaller pieces), turning them into ions, so that they may be accelerated under electric fields. How those ions behave under that electric force allows their masses to be determined. “Ions” refers to the testing technique, not the test subject.

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