How Real is CSI?

Please excuse me for being a little scientific about CSI today. I have read a couple of months ago about the big difference of reality and what’s actually happening in the show. It has been noted that crimes, identities, etc. actually takes forever to determine unlike the lightning speed by which CSI presents itself to the public.

Hmmm, the show is not categorized as a “national geographic, scientific” one for that matter anyway (more discussion in future articles).

Going back, it was recently reported that Florida Tech’s award winning technology was actually used in an episode of CSI. Good to hear that. It says that:

Florida Tech has become the first university with a doctoral, or research program, to own an instrument that is revolutionizing the work of old-fashioned mass spectrometers. The DART (Direct Analysis in Real Time) enables direct detection of drugs, chemicals or explosives on surfaces, in liquids and in gases without the need for sample preparation.

Recently seen on the TV show, CSI, the DART has won an R&D Magazine award as one of the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace in 2005. It also won Pittcon Editors’ Gold Award for Best New Product in 2005.

The story found at Medical News about the product used by CSI gives credibility to the show and thus makes it more interesting to science interested folks. A dose of science plus entertainment could not get any better than that.