Water, in its various forms, often has a story to tell. Trapped within the layers of the Greenland Ice Sheet, for instance, are gases and chemicals that have helped reconstruct the Earth's climate history. Suspended in some Nevada waterways is dissolved mercury harkening back to the Comstock mining era. Hidden in the snow that blankets Sierra peaks are traces of the airborne pollutants present when those flakes fell. Researchers at DRI know where and how to look for these waterborne clues to the workings of the world. And their sleuthing has recently become faster and more efficient thanks to something called an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer--the Ultramass 700.

That intimidating title translates to a faster, more precise way to analyze the chemical and physical properties of water. Rick Stone, director of DRI's Analytical Chemistry Laboratory where the machine is housed, describes the new spectrometer as "a big step forward in our analytical capabilities. With this, we can do multi-element analyses in a hurry." By "in a hurry" he means analyzing a sample for several different substances in just four minutes. By contrast, conventional water analysis methods can measure only one substance at time, taking much longer. That means the process must be set up and repeated several times to get the information the Ultramass can give in just four minutes. What's more, the Ultramass can do the analysis much more precisely, detecting the presence of substances at much lower levels than can be measured with conventional methods. In a final nod to efficiency, the Ultramass can be operated remotely from office workstations; and analysis results can be sent directly into tables, graphs, and reports--no more typos or other input errors.

The Ultramass has a deceptively simple exterior, looking more like a beefed-up copy machine than the latest in laboratory technology. Its computer interface even has an inviting point-and-click look--you actually choose the elements you want to measure from a colorful periodic table. Beneath this user-friendly surface, however, lies sophisticated, complex technology. The Ultramass uses argon--a gaseous element also found in electric bulbs--to fuel the plasma and accomplish its amazing analytical feats. When the argon is heated and passed through an electric field, it becomes an extremely hot, and eerily glowing, plasma--a gas which conducts electricity and is affected by magnetism. Within the plasma, the various elements in a water sample are ionized and then identified according to their mass, which is different for each individual element.

Of course, the point of improving analytical techniques is to provide more and better information to the people who need it. According to Stone, the Ultramass will do that. "For instance, if we analyze samples of water from Lake Tahoe and we could tell you the sources of the nitrogen and phosphorous and whether they came from outside the Tahoe Basin, it would probably make a real difference in the management decision you'd make." With the ability to identify the chemical tracers that distinguish between natural and manmade pollutants, the Ultramass could make that scenario a reality.

Ultimately, the Ultramass 700 spectrometer is another in a long line of technological advances that help DRI scientists gain a better understanding of the world around us. And, while the rapid progress of technology is remarkable, perhaps even more remarkable are the researchers who drive its creation by their continuing quest to uncover the stories the Earth has to tell.

Jackie Allen