We are pleased to announce the forthcoming publications by Taylor and Francis (CRC Press) of Volumes 4 and 5 of the mini-series Practical Aspects of Trapped Ion Mass Spectrometry, edited by Raymond E. March and John F.J. Todd, members of BMSS. Volumes 1–3 were published in 1995 under the title Practical Aspects of Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry. Volume 3, “Chemical, Environmental and Biomedical Applications”, is a companion to Volumes 1 and 2, subtitled “Fundamentals of Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry” and “Ion Trap Instrumentation”, respectively. Volumes 1–3 are concerned principally with the history, theory, and applications of the quadrupole ion trap and, to a lesser degree, of the quadrupole mass filter. Volume 5, which is to be published on October 5, 2009, under the title Practical Aspects of Trapped Ion Mass Spectrometry, and subtitled “Applications”, is a companion to Volume 4, subtitled “Theory and Instrumentation”, which is to be published at the end of February, 2010. Upon reflection, one is struck by the spectacular progress that has been made in the ion-trapping field since 1995. The advent of electrospray ionization (ESI) and its ready compatibility with ion trapping devices has brought about a revolution in the accessibility of covalent compounds for examination by mass spectrometry in general, and by quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometry in particular. For their development of soft desorption ionization methods for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules, John Fenn and Koicho Tanaka received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2002. The enormous impact that electrospray ionization has made in biochemistry in general, and in the study of proteins especially, is remarkable. Virtually every mass spectrometry laboratory is equipped now with electrospray ionization; compounds previously for which derivatization was essential for examination by electron impact, can be examined facilely in solution now by direct infusion to an electrospray ionization source. As testament to this situation, more than half of the chapters presented in Volumes 4 and 5 are concerned with the use of electrospray ionization. The practice of trapping gaseous ions and the applications thereof have expanded considerably during the past decade or so, in part, due to the use of electrospray ionization, but also as witnessed by the substantial growth in popularity of quadrupole ion traps and of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometers, instruments that hitherto were regarded as being rival rather than complementary
*This article is appearing in the 60th Edition of BMSS’ Mass Matters newsletter in November.