Final Report Summary - NEWISOTOPEGEOSCIENCE (New isotope systems for the geosciences)
This project gave the PI and his research group the chance to branch out into very new unchartered scientific areas. These included completely new isotopic systems, new mass spectrometry detectors for measuring rare isotopes, a robotic chemical separation system of broad applicability, and new archives, in particular hydrocarbons and biological materials including human samples. We have had major success with some of these; others need further work. The really big discoveries include the isotopic heterogeneity and enrichment of the lithospheric mantle in Mo - possibly reflecting ancient subducted sediment, the discovery that the silicate Earth is chondritic for Cr, Ni and Mo isotopic composition with no record of an isotopic effect from core formation, the discovery that the Earth's continental crust has been getting isotopically lighter in molybdenum over time probably because of loss of heavy Mo to the mantle, the discovery that V, Ni and Mo can be used to fingerprint the source regions of hydrocarbon reservoirs, the discovery that despite W having conservative behaviour, the oceans are stratified and strongly fractionated in W isotopic composition, possibly leading to a new proxy, and finally the realisation that breast cancer tumours are light in term of Zn isotopes, potentially paving the way for a new disease biomarker.