Tim Bertram

IYKYK

If you’re at #ASMS2025 come stop by my poster (ThP304) to learn about how we hacked an RGA to measure trace atmospheric species using low cost RF oscillator circuits!

"People will not lose their Medicaid if they can overcome an impossible obstacle course of administrative burdens we are imposing precisely because we know people can't overcome them" - would be more accurate, but less catchy. 🧵

A Hybrid Vacuum Flange RF Oscillator for Low-Cost Mass Spectrometry In this communication we report the construction of a printed circuit board which mounts directly to the vacuum chamber of a mass spectrometer and produces the RF waveforms needed by many nonmass-selective devices such as ion guides and ion funnels. Our device is designed to replace a standard KF40 flange, can maintain vacuum chamber pressures of less than 10–6 Torr, and contains the circuitry of the open-source Wisconsin Oscillator RF power supply to generate RF waveforms of 1–4 MHz and up to 200 Vp-p. In this iteration of the Wisconsin Oscillator, we also introduce a variable resistor to control the output RF amplitude and show that its ion transmission capabilities are identical to those provided by commercial RF power supplies. With this new implementation we have greatly reduced the space and monetary requirements for driving nonmass-selective ion manipulation devices, which we expect to be advantageous to those developing low-cost and/or portable mass spectrometry systems.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

It's been years since I spent a day fiddling in the lab. Testing the frequency dependence of our ion guides using @stevenjkregel.bsky.social slick flange mounted RF oscillators. #WisconsinOscillator #opensource pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

How many 1968 valiants need to be driving in a single TROPOMI nadir pixel to be detectable from space.

Ok, so if I read this report correctly, your son's car is blowing 5.5 g/mi NOx! So yeah, 1 mile in the valiant is like 200 miles in fleet average. The test valiant here was a 1970, so perhaps worse! Would be a good problem set question. www.epa.gov/sites/defaul...

Yesterday, I confidently had my kids ride the school bus during a tornado watch. Why? Because NOAA scientists create realtime products that allow us to evaluate severe weather. I can't imagine a world where AI generates products I trust more than this.

Shout out to the disabled community for always showing up, always being on the right side of history and justice, always willing to put their bodies on the line, all for the cause of making sure *everyone* has the basic dignity of health care.

Kids, back in the old days, we used Raman scattering as a transfer standard.

Sorry Jesse. I got mine too.

Got mine today as well. Apparently, studying air quality is "no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities."

FWIW, this is one idea being considered for the power hour at the GRC this summer. Feedback / suggestions are welcome!

I can't even convince my kids' dentist to stop giving out PFAS-based dental floss samples.

This is truly misguided. How about going after dental floss manufacturers that produce floss that is upwards of 25% PFAS that kids rub all over their teeth every day?

Let's see how the 4 yo does on @lisacadmusbertram.bsky.social final exam. "Scribble scribble scribble" she says.

An affordable (<$25k) EV that is half the size of a modern pickup. I hope this comes to market as promised. Midwest innovation and manufacturing. www.slate.auto/en

5.25" floppy disks came out in 1976, 24 years before your grad school visit. WindowXP was released in 2001. We are now the dinosaurs 🦕.

Madison, WI #HandsOff
🥰🥰🥰

Madison showing its colors!!! Wall to wall from the capitol to the campus. 👊🏻🏳️‍🌈🔥

Pretty much the same here in Wisconsin ...

Replace "dogs" with swiss made mass spectrometers for an ironic twist.

See a trend? Every single county.

Wisconsin has spoken.

Why AI won’t replace scientists capable of making disruptive conceptual breakthroughs - they pose questions that challenge, rather than align with, the training data set

thomwolf.io/blog/scienti...

Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century Numerous declines have been documented across insect groups, and the potential consequences of insect losses are dire. Butterflies are the most surveyed insect taxa, yet analyses have been limited in ...

Rapid butterfly declines across the United States during the 21st century | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Big (bad) news: the US Embassy air monitoring program webpage has been taken down: www.airnow.gov/internationa...

This erases ~17 years of a critical data source at ~80 US diplomatic posts around the world. Critically for the health of thousands of foreign services officers, critical for research..

Most people are not political scientists using formal definitions. So I am curious when is the moment that people tell themselves "oh, I live under an authoritarian government now." Because what else is this?
www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

NOAA’s vast public weather data powers the local forecasts on your phone and TV – a private company alone couldn’t match it NOAA operates fleets of satellites, sensors on airplanes and ocean-going buoys, as well as radar, providing the data used by weather forecasters nationwide – and freely available to anyone.

@cwiedinm.bsky.social has co-authored a fantastic conversation article on the massive effort that underpins weather forecasting ☁️🌀🌧️⛅❄️⚡
theconversation.com/noaas-vast-p...