Our Mission
Our mission is to push the boundaries of possibility by developing cutting-edge technologies that empower scientific discovery, solve complex challenges, and accelerate progress for society..
Seeing the Unseen: Overcoming the Blind Spots in Ultra-Trace Analysis
What if the answer to a critical question was right in front of you, but completely invisible? In the world of high-precision analysis, this happens every day. Standard techniques, like mass spectrometry, identify elements by weighing them. But this powerful method has a fundamental blind spot: it can be fooled by different elements that happen to have almost the exact same mass. These "isobaric interferences" are like analytical twins—virtually indistinguishable by weight alone—and they stand in the way of major discoveries.
This single challenge creates critical roadblocks across the world's most demanding fields.
Nuclear & Environmental Safety
To ensure public safety and manage nuclear waste, we must accurately detect microscopic traces of radioactive contaminants like strontium-90. The problem is these dangerous elements are perfectly masked by common, harmless elements like zirconium and ruthenium that weigh the same. This analytical blindness makes it incredibly difficult to confirm if a site is truly clean or if nuclear materials are being securely monitored.
Geological & Archaeological Dating
Unlocking the secrets of Earth's climate history or dating ancient artifacts depends on counting a tiny number of specific atoms, like carbon-14 or aluminum-26. Unfortunately, these crucial clocks are drowned out by vastly more abundant elements like nitrogen and magnesium. This interference creates uncertainty, limiting the precision with which we can date ice ages, volcanic eruptions, and key moments in human history.
Cosmic & Planetary Science
How did our planet form? Where do the elements of life come from? Answering these questions requires analyzing microscopic stardust in meteorites and tracing the faint signatures of stellar explosions. But the vital clues—rare isotopes of iron, hafnium, or samarium—are hidden by an overwhelming background of other elements with identical mass, leaving the universe's most profound origin stories just beyond our grasp.
For decades, progress in these fields has been stalled by this fundamental challenge to tell identical twins apart. Answering these questions doesn't require a better scale; it requires a completely new way of seeing.