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The Museum analytical platform
The scientific activities associated with all of the Museum's missions require analytical equipment grouped into technical platforms, meeting the needs of the institution's research teams and covering the Museum's different scientific disciplines.
These technical platforms are intended to provide technical support to the Museum's researchers, but some of them may also be open to other institutions or companies. Those that meet the specifications defined in the Museum Structural Action (ASM) "Analytical Platform" receive recurrent financial support.
The « Action Structurelle du Muséum (ASM) plateforme analytique du Muséum (PAM) »
The Museum is home to several research units with substantial analytical resources which, combined with the skills of their staff, constitute high-performance technical platforms. The analyses from these platforms are the basis of the scientific policy of these laboratories and of the institution, as attested by numerous publications.
All these analytical resources are coordinated within the ASM "Museum analytical platform" in order to make their management transparent, to highlight their role in the scientific production of the Museum's laboratories and to facilitate their scientific evaluation through a unified presentation. The PAM also aims to improve the visibility of the Museum's analytical resources in order to encourage the emergence of innovative projects within the institution's teams. These platforms are supported by the assumption of maintenance contracts, participation in the basic operation, the purchase of small equipment and assistance with repair requests.
Each technical platform is coordinated by a steering committee which selects the analysis projects submitted on an ad hoc basis, coordinates the running of the analyses and ensures the technical and budgetary management of the platform. This committee also carries out a technological check of its instruments in order to define medium and long-term strategies to ensure the renewal and updating of the instruments through responses to local or national calls for tenders (e.g. Museum, Ile-de-France region or CNRS). This committee provides an annual scientific activity report and a financial statement. Each technical platform has its own rules of procedure and a users' charter.
The PAM is integrated into the Museum's research department and works across the three scientific departments of the institution.
Technical facilities
The sixteen technical platforms of the PAM are grouped into four main areas:
- imaging and morphometry
- elemental and isotopic analyses
- structural chemistry/biochemistry and -omics approaches
More information on the instruments and technology available at the Museum is available on the dedicated websites of the PAM technical platforms.
Imaging and microscopy unit
- AST-RX: tomographic X-ray imaging
- 2D/3D imaging platform at the Musée de l'Homme
- Motion analysis platform
- PtME: electron microscopy platform
- CeMIM: optical and fluorescence imaging
- AIS : Scientific Iconography workshop
Elemental and isotopic analysis division
- NanoSIMS: elemental and isotopic imaging
- SSMIM: measurements of stable isotope ratios
- Geochronology: measurements of ages in archaeological samples using ICP-MS or EPR