A Beautiful Planet calls Earth's atmosphere "a delicate cocoon of air that shields us from our star's radiation." Of course, the atmosphere doesn't completely block electromagnetic radiation from the Sun; without some sunlight reaching the surface, plants could not harvest the Sun's energy, and practically no life as we know it could exist. The atmosphere's ozone layer does filter out much of the harmful ultraviolet light (or "UV rays") produced by the Sun. UV rays can cause skin cancer, and catastrophic damage to the ozone layer may have contributed to Earth's most extensive mass extinction of species ever, the End-Permian extinction (also known
Gas Chromatography - Vacuum Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (GC-VUV) Gas Chromatography - Vacuum Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (GC-VUV) Gas Chromatography - Vacuum Ultraviolet (GC-VUV) spectroscopy is a universal detection platform for gas chromatography. The first benchtop detector was introduced in 2014 with detection capabilities between 120 - 240 nm. This portion of the ultraviolet spectrum had historically been restricted to bright source synchrotron facilities due to significant background absorption challenges inherent to working within the wavelength range. Further detector platform development has extended the wavelength detection range out from 120 - 430 nm. VUV detection provides both qualitative and quantitative spectral information for most gas phase compounds. GC-VUV spectral data is