Decent article. Misses the more detailed configuration of the lab equipment (what detector? mass chromatography, most likely? what flavor of MS?).
As a thought about getting these labs more common… what about some standard procedures, so new labs that pop up can share the methods? Equipment configurations? Open-hardware alternatives to the control electronics, so if something is bought as a brain-dead scrap on eBay it can be brain-transplanted without having to deal with boards made of gold-plated unobtainium? Cheap standards for easy calibration?
(And, as a next step, open-hardware rest-of-the-machines? The electronics is nailed down by now, the mechanics is in the domain of CNC machining, laser-cutting, 3d-printing and contract manufacturing, the more advanced parts (the tubes for the GC columns, or, more accurately, their inner coating) can be brought down to commodity level prices with high enough demand (or, at least, ones from different vendors could be mix-and-matched), and the optics, well, it remains being the problem. (Though that also may be solvable; look at the rudimentary-but-anyway LWIR optics for cheap laser cutters, or the fairly high-end laser optics in BluRay heads.))
(The DIY CNC is a fairly big segment now. DIY drones as well. So why not DIY analytical equipment?)
