ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Time-resolved mass spectrometry

Imagine you have a bunch of toys in a big toy box, and you want to find out what each toy is made of. But you don't want to take all the toys out of the box - that would take forever! So instead, you use a special machine called a time-resolved mass spectrometer.

This machine works kind of like a magic scanner that can see inside each toy and figure out what's in it. But it also works really fast! It can scan each toy super quickly, and tell you exactly what's inside.

The magic part comes from the fact that the scanner actually breaks the toys down into tiny pieces, called ions. The ions are like little puzzle pieces that the scanner can put back together to figure out what the toy is made of.

The time-resolved part means that the scanner can also tell you how the toy changes over time. For example, if the toy is exposed to different temperatures or chemicals, the scanner can track how those changes affect the toy's makeup.

So, in short: Time-resolved mass spectrometry is a special machine that can quickly and accurately scan objects and tell you what's inside them. It uses ions to break down the object into tiny pieces, and it can also track how the object changes over time.