Talk:Carbon-13

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• shoulndt exhibit the molecule with two C13 isotopes exhibit a mass spectrometric difference of m+2, compared to the molecule with only C12 (M)?

Yep, that's true. Such peaks are observed too. See Figure 1.A in http://www.weddslist.com/ms/maldi.html. The M+2 and even more peaks are observed, too.

• What's the mass of a C13? It's not exactly m(C12)+1, or is it?

[edit] box

IT WAS COMMENTED OUT UNTIL AN EXPLANATORY CAPTION (clarifying the meaning and relationship of each one of the entries) IS WRITTEN FOR THIS BOX:

Carbon-12	Isotopes of Carbon	Carbon-14
Produced from: Nitrogen-13 Boron-13	Decay chain	Decays to: Stable

[edit] Article too narrowly focused

I came to this article after reading the following Space.com article about how scientists are using carbon-13 to deduce the origins of life of Earth:

• Goudarzi, Sara. "Galactic Baby Boom Influenced Life on Earth", SPACE.com, 2006-11-27. Retrieved on November 28, 2006.

I wanted to understand how biochemical reactions can distinguish between carbon-13 and other isotopes. But the current material here reads less like an encyclopedia article than an excerpt from a nuclear physics text. Can someone with more domain knowledge than I (on the whole subject of carbon-13, not just how to detect it) broaden this article to incorporate aspects of more general interest, like those that might answer my question? Thank you for any assistance. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 17:37, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

See Isotope fractionation Jclerman 18:57, 28 November 2006 (UTC)