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The Most Famous Scientific Instrument on TV
How does CSI’s “GC Mass Spec” work
Can’t you hear it — the theme to CSI?? Whoooooo are you, ooo oooo, oooo oooo! I really wanna know!
Well, I can anyway.
In any case, I’m sure you’ve wondered about the scientific instruments they portray on the show. Are they real? What do they even do? How do they do what they do? What does “GC Mass Spec” even mean? Why does the age gap between Sarah Sidle and Gil Grissom bother me so much?
Okay, so that last one doesn’t really have to do with the instrumentation all that much, but if you’re a fan of the show like I used to be, it definitely was on your mind. Back on topic!
A quick note about scientific instrumentation and terminology. I learned at a very early age that the equipment that scientists perform analysis with are instruments not machines. I called the mass spec a “machine” once, and I got ripped a new one by my chemistry instructor. If you mistakenly call a scientific instrument a machine, be forewarned, you are about endure a talking to.
There are a few pieces of instrumentation on CSI that I can recall off the top of my head (“GC Mass Spec,” “FTIR”), and if I re-watched the show, I’m sure there’d be some more (if you are reading this, and you want to know how a piece of…
