Measuring the Masses of Large Molecules or Making Elephants Fly

Measuring the Masses of Large Molecules or Making Elephants Fly. 

Mass spectrometry has not previously been used to obtain protein masses, because proteins 

One researcher involved in this project likened this method to an elephant on top of a tall building The elephant must fly if the building suddenly turns into fine grains of sand.  

This technique allows scientists to determine the masses of huge molecules. So far researchers have measured proteins with masses up to 350,000 daltons (1 dalton is equal to 1 atomic mass unit). This method probably will be extended to even larger molecules such as DNA and could be a revolutionary development in the characterization of biomolecules.  

To find the number of molecules released in a sting, we must first determine the number of moles of isopentyl acetate in 1 X 10-6 g  

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