 DART mass spectrometry has been used in pharmaceutical applications, forensic studies, quality control, and environmental studies.DART resulted from conversations between Laramee and Cody about the development of an atmospheric pressure ion source to replace the radioactive sources in handheld chemical weapons detectors.DART was developed in late 2002 to early 2003 by Cody and Laramee as a new atmospheric pressure ionization process, and a US patent application was filed in April 2003.Although the development of DART actually predated the desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) ion source, the initial DART publication did not appear until shortly after the DESI publication, and both ion sources were publicly introduced in back-to-back presentations by R. G. Cooks and R. B. Cody at the January 2005 ASMS Sanibel Conference.