Inside the laboratory at the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education in Horsham, chemists and toxicologists are surrounded by loud, whirring machines connected to various tubes, wires and beakers used to analyze solids and liquids.
The substances they’re testing are often sold illegally in tiny bags or packages. Now, they’re being examined under bright fluorescent lights, dissolved in liquid and injected into test tubes.
“These are all of our GC-MSs, so gas chromatograph mass spectrometers,” explained Alex Krotulski, a forensic toxicologist and lab director at the center, while pointing at a row of instruments on a lab work bench…