Probe electrospray ionization

Do you know what a microscope is? It's a tool that lets you see tiny things that you can't see with your eyes alone. Scientists use a special kind of microscope called a mass spectrometer to study really, really small things too.

One of the ways they do this is through a process called electrospray ionization. This is kind of like using a hose to spray water, but instead of water, they spray a liquid that has a special chemical in it. This chemical helps turn whatever they want to study into tiny particles called ions.

Once they have these ions, scientists can use the mass spectrometer to study them even more. But sometimes they don't want to study just one thing at a time - they want to study a bunch of things all at once! That's where the probe comes in.

A probe is a tiny, tiny needle that scientists use to grab just a little bit of whatever they want to study. They can then use the electrospray ionization process to turn that tiny bit into ions and study them with the mass spectrometer.

So, in short, probe electrospray ionization is a way for scientists to study lots of tiny things at once, using a tiny needle and a special process that turns them into ions.