Most dollar bills contain trace amounts of cocaine, and Lower Columbia College now has a high-tech machine that can detect it — as well as hand creams and hundreds of other chemical residues hands smear on them.

The Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) is the same type of machine used by crime analysts and often featured on the popular “CSI” crime-investigations show, according to LCC chemistry instructor Armando Herbelin.

Shows such as “CSI” have renewed an interest in chemistry, biology and forensic sciences, and bringing such a machine to campus helps show students real-world applications for science, said Adam Wolfer, an LCC organic chemistry instructor.

“I think it’s pretty rare for a community college to have this machine,” Wolfer said. “For a university, where there’s research going on, it’s not so rare.”

Even then, he said, undergraduates typically don’t have access a GCMS, he said.

Using the machine also gives students a more hands on approach to science. Rather than having everyone in a class analyze ingredients in the same substance, Wolfer can now allow students to create their own mixtures and test them for contents.

“This machine will tell them how well they did,” he said.

LCC received its previously used GCMS last spring as a gift from Agilent Technologies, a Santa Clara, Calif.,-based company that makes sophisticated measuring instruments for clients such as Columbia Analytical in Kelso. It’s worth about $50,000 used, but can cost upwards of $150,000 if purchased new.

As the name implies, the machine uses two techniques that are combined to form a single method of analyzing mixtures of chemicals. Gas chromatography separates the chemical components of a mixture; the mass spectroscopy identifies each of the chemicals. By combining the two techniques, an analytical chemist can detect the presence and concentration of chemicals in a solution. The machines are used extensively in medicine, pharmacology, environmental regulations and law enforcement fields.

Wolfer hopes the machine will allow more students to take on independent study projects, which are a growing trend at the college. Last spring, a student interested in learning about pharmaceuticals used the GCMS to learn more about the chemical components of a certain drug, Wolfer said.

To find trace chemicals on a object, such as cocaine on a dollar bill, it’s first washed in a methanol solution. A small sample is then run through a tube so thin it looks like fishing wire. The long tube separates the compounds, and the mass spectrometer identifies them.

Results can take between 20 minutes to more than an hour to complete, depending on the complexity of the test, Herbelin said. Liquid analysis are diluted and then follow a similar process.

Alvin Jeffers, 21, said using a GCMS during chemistry classes gives him a new way to look at information. Instead of reading about mixtures in a book, the math and science student can see the GCMS create detailed charts of chemicals it detects in a solution.

“Science has always been fun. This makes it funner.”