Mini-mass spec - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences


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	By Margaret Guthrie

Mini-mass spec There’s a lot going on 2500 meters below sea level. It’s dark, temperatures can climb to 300 degrees Celsius near thermal vents, and the pressure is about 250 atmospheres. If humans could swim at that depth, the pressure exerted on the body would be equivalent to the weight of about 30 Boeing 747 jumbo jets, says Peter Girguis at Harvard University. And yet the water