The world-famous historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes was back in Estonia last week, and this time she visited scientists at the University of Tartu, including the members of the Archemy Lab from our chair of analytical chemistry. Ester and Mari talked about their interdisciplinary research and recent discoveries in biomolecular archaeology.
As they say in the filming industry “to be continued…”.
Below are some first shots of the filming with Ester.
Photos by Kätlin Jansons
We are happy to announce that a member of our group, Mari Tõrv, research fellow in the Archemy team, is one of the three Estonian researchers to receive the Baltic Women in Science fellowship this year!
Mari’s research delves into the biological and cultural diversity of ancient humans, emphasizing the duality of the human body as both a historical and cultural construct and a biological reality. She studies life and death in past cultures through the analysis of ancient human remains, highlighting the importance of understanding end-of-life rituals to fully grasp human nature, a subject often taboo in the Western world.
Tarmo Soomere, President of the Estonian Academy of Sciences emphasized “Talented and successful women scientists deserve to be highlighted and recognised across the whole spectrum of science. Their example inspires and ignites.”
The fellowships were funded by the Ministry of Education and Research and awarded within the program co-organised by the Baltic National Academies of Sciences and National Commissions for UNESCO. The fellowship is aimed to support the research of young women scientists to continue their outstanding work in the Baltic States.
See the video below, where Mari talks more about her research. The basis of this blog post and information on the work of the other two laureates can be found here.
On the 23rd of October, the building that has been the home to the Institute of Chemistry of the University of Tartu – Chemicum – turned 15 years old!
To celebrate the special occasion, all the Chairs of the Institute prepared various dishes showcasing some of their research fields. Of course, our Chair of Analytical Chemistry was also present with a special cake – a pH cookie cake!
The cookie cake was 100 x 40 cm large and consisted of classical layers of whipped cream mixed with curd, chopped bananas and cookies.
The main attraction was the decorative top layer, where we used colourful fruits and berries to visualise the pH and pKa scale with the typical colour gradient.
In addition, some structures of acids and bases made from chocolate were added as representative examples.
The making of the cake turned out to be a fun group activity, which is best seen in the gallery below.
The making of the cake turned out to be a fun group activity, which is best seen in the gallery below (or click here for the full gallery).
Happy birthday, Chemicum!
We are happy to announce that Ester Oras, Associate Professor in our Analytical Chemistry Chair and PI of the Archemy group has received the honorary title “Female Academic of the Year” from the Estonian Association of Academic Women!
Ester is a modern scientist who works across multiple disciplines, integrating methods from archaeology, chemistry, biology, and even food science. Her research is primarily focused on ancient diets in Northern Europe, particularly in Estonia. Through this work, she established the first archaeochemistry lab in the Baltic region called “Archemy” at the Univeristy of Tartu. Her studies focus on ancient food practices — what people ate, how diets varied between social classes, and how food was tied to broader economic and cultural systems. She has also applied her expertise in archaeochemistry to investigate topics such as ancient migrations and Stone Age crafting technologies.
At the same time, Ester’s research extends well beyond Estonia. She has trained at leading research institutions worldwide, including Oxford, Cambridge, Max Planck Institute, and Weizmann Institute, mastering advanced analytical techniques like mass spectrometry and chromatography. Internationally regarded as an expert in the biomolecular analysis of food remains, she collaborates with researchers from countries like Germany, Finland, and the UK. Her work has been published in over 50 scientific articles across top journals in archaeology and natural sciences. In recognition of her groundbreaking research, she was recently awarded the prestigious ERC Starting Grant, and she holds several international leadership roles in organizations such as the International Society for Biomolecular Archaeology.
Beyond her scientific work, Ester is deeply committed to public outreach and gender equality in science. She regularly speaks at schools, museums, and on television, raising awareness about archaeology and inspiring future generations of scientists. She is an advocate for women in science, having launched also in Estonia the celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and contributing to numerous international gender equality projects. Her leadership extends to the University of Tartu, where she has been part of developing the university’s gender equality plan and growing a more inclusive academic environment. Through her interdisciplinary research, international collaborations, and dedication to social issues, Ester is shaping both the future of science and the role of scientists in society.
Congratulations on this well-deserved recognition, Ester!
We’re delighted to share that members of our Archemy and Analysis of Cultural Heritage Objects groups have published a new article titled, “Influence of Mineral Composition and Firing Temperature on the Micro- and Mesoporosity of Replicate Archaeological Ceramics” in the journal of Clays and Clay Minerals (Volume 72, 2024, e13). Read the Open Access article here.
This study examines how the mineral composition of clay and temper, along with firing temperatures, influences the formation of micro- and mesopores in pottery. The porosity of ceramics is considered a significant factor in the absorption and preservation of organic compounds, such as lipids, within archaeological pottery. Our research provides the first quantitative analysis of pore structures in ceramics designed to replicate archaeological samples, establishing valuable baseline information for future investigations into ceramic porosity and organic residue analysis.
On the 5th of September 2024, PRG workgroup members Dr Signe Vahur, Dr Anu Teearu-Ojakäär, Dr Rünno Lõhmus, Dr Aleksei Treštšalov and specialist MSc student Martin Leissoo visited the Mitutoyo metrology lab at Riga Technical University (RTU) where the director of the lab Ass. Prof. Janis Lungevics kindly hosted them and introduced different new equipment in the lab.
The one-day trip was undertaken for the purpose of research work. As part of the collaboration, various materials related to the PRG project have been measured with an optical 3D profilometer in Mitutoyo’s laboratory. Janis introduced the 3D profilometer and showed also very interesting research results that will be published in the joint scientific article.
All the members of the PRG group were very excited about the visit, which gave new interesting ideas for further research.
Thank you, Janis, for a very interesting day and all the support and help!
We are delighted to announce that the prestigious ERC Starting Grant was awarded to a member of our group and head of the Archemy team – Associate Professor in Analytical Chemistry and Archaeology Ester Oras!
The European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant is awarded to early-stage researchers to carry out their outstanding ideas over the next five years. Ester’s project aims to explore our distant ancestor’s identities through diet by conducting biomolecular analysis on at least 150 burial finds, uncovering details of life from a thousand years ago.
Food is a crucial element in understanding identity, revealing details about social roles, status, and even how the person spent their childhood. By examining bones, teeth, and food residues from pottery, the team can reconstruct how a person’s diet evolved over their lifetime. This will help answer questions like whether an individual ate foods typical of their gender or social class and if they grew up in the area where they were buried.
During the project, various burial finds will be analysed, focusing primarily on sites in Estonia from the years 1000–1400. Using advanced techniques, the team will analyse various molecules, including fats, proteins, and DNA, to uncover specific details about what ancient people ate. This comprehensive approach could even identify not only if the person ate fish but also whether it was cod or herring, offering a deeper look into the lives of our ancestors.
What makes this research groundbreaking is its combination of modern scientific methods with traditional archaeology. Machine learning will be used to integrate the results from various analyses, helping to identify connections between individuals and communities. The project marks a significant step forward for archaeological research, offering new perspectives on ancient identities and social structures.
Read the original blog post here.
Congratulations from all of us, Ester!
We are excited to share our latest publication titled, “pKaH values and θH angles of phosphanes to predict their electronic and steric parameters” (Dalton Trans., 2024, 53, 14226-14236. https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d4dt01430h).
In this study, we delve into the fascinating world of phosphanes – a versatile class of organic bases that play a crucial role in a wide array of chemical applications. Phosphanes are known for their incredibly diverse range of basicities, with pKaH values spanning over 30 orders of magnitude. One of the key insights from our research is that pKaH values can be a valuable alternative to Tolman electronic parameters (TEP values) for assessing the electronic properties of phosphanes. This finding opens up new possibilities for researchers to evaluate phosphanes without the need for the time-consuming preparation or calculation of metal-ligand complexes.
In addition to electronic properties, we also propose new geometric parameters to assess the steric properties of phosphanes – the θH angles, which have the advantage of being accessible by simple computations. Together, the pKa values and θH angles provide a straightforward approach to understand and predict the behavior of phosphanes in various chemical environments and processes.
Our study combines computational and experimental findings to offer a fresh perspective on how phosphanes can be analyzed and utilized, and we believe it will be a valuable resource for researchers working with these compounds. We invite you to read the full article to explore the detailed findings and implications of our work.
From June 2 to June 6, 2024, Signe Vahur and Anu Teearu-Ojakäär attended the 72nd ASMS conference on mass spectrometry and allied topics at Anaheim Convention Center (Anaheim, USA).
This year, the conference hosted almost 6800 attendees and 183 companies. During the four days there were 384 oral presentations that ran in 8 parallel sessions and 3288 poster presentations (more than 800 posters per day) on wide variety of topics related to mass spectrometry – developments in instrumentation, analysis of complex and problematic samples, using AI and software solutions to improve measurements, data handling, etc. In addition, there were 50 evening workshops and 49 breakfast seminars. From Monday to Wednesday evening, 15 daily corporate hospitality suits were hosted by some of the companies (e.g., Bruker, Agilent Technologies, Shimadzu, Thermo Scientific, etc.).
At the conference, Signe and Anu presented their poster “APCI-MS for the analysis of cultural heritage materials” during the Thursday (June 6) poster session. On Monday evening (June 3), Anu gave a 3-minute Flash talk at the evening workshop “Art, Museums, and Archaeology” for an audience of approximately 160 attendees.
The 72nd ASMS conference was a great experience by meeting old colleagues and fellow MS enthusiasts, making new connections, having great and fruitful discussions and networking opportunities. Thank you to the organisers of the conference for delivering yet another high-level event!
On April 16, 2024, prof. Ivo Leito presented the topic of “Unified pH Scale – from Concept to Applications” at the 8th Baltic Electrochemistry Conference: Finding New Inspiration 2 (BEChem 2024), held in Tartu, Estonia.
At the beginning of the presentation, Ivo gave a brief overview of why pH, a widely used value for expressing acidity, has serious limitations. Thus, it cannot be used to compare the acidities of solutions in different solvents, which can hinder the understanding of chemical, biological, environmental, and industrial processes.
A much more practical approach could be the usage of an absolute/universal pH, which would allow the comparison of acidities in different solvents. Thus, the main part of the presentation was focused on the theoretical and practical aspects of unified pH (pHabs). In recent years, our Acid-base Studies workgroup in the Analytical Chemistry Chair has worked extensively with the development and measurement of unified pH values for various systems in different solvents (liquid chromatography modile phases, electrocatalytic mixtures, strongly acidic solutions, etc). A differential potentiometry method for pHabs has been developed in the workgroup to obtain the unified pH values and has been now distributed to a number of groups in Europe in the framework of the UnipHied project.
For now, the unified pH has matured from a concept into a practical tool and has been accepted both by the European metrology community (Euramet) and by IUPAC. The unified pH could be utilized in various applications, such as liquid chromatography, catalytic systems, and acidity at the interfaces between phases.
The presented research is largely the result of the EMPIR programme project 17FUN09 “UnipHied” and was additionally supported by grant PRG690 from the Estonian Research Council.
