Ellen Hopmans

I develop techniques to measure various molecules in minuscule quantities, in material from the ocean floor, for example. The main group of substances I am searching for are lipids: fatty substances produced by all living organisms. For example, when an alga dies and sinks to the floor, its lipids can be found millions of years later. They can tell us something about the organisms that lived during a certain period and thus the climate in that period. Nowadays, instead of searching for a specific molecule, we increasingly often analyse patterns in complex mixtures of substances. The computer basically holds an enormous magnet above a haystack to help us find a needle we did not know about.