In forensic science, identifying a substance is rarely as simple as looking at a sample and determining what it contains. Blood, urine, seized drugs, unknown powders, environmental samples, and other evidence can contain hundreds or thousands of chemical compounds.

To separate and identify those compounds, forensic laboratories rely on sophisticated analytical instrumentation. Two of the most important technologies are gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS).

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