Four students from La Salle School in Bilbao, together with their professor Ibai López, participated in the workshop "Characterization of drugs and drug samples by means of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)", developed by the Gizpuzkoa Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Unit which belongs to the General Research Services (SGIker) of the UPV/EHU, which took place in the Joxe Mari Korta of the UPV/EHU, in Donostia-San Sebastián on January 18th, 2017.

After a tour of the laboratory, showing the complexity of the equipment, its maintenance and the load of liquid nitrogen, they were explained the fundamentals of the technique, types of analysis and samples. In order to understand the difficulty of preparation of the samples, different narcotic substances (heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamine and others) were analyzed and their results interpreted.

They were also shown how the solid state samples are prepared to discriminate drug polymorphs from actual samples.

At all times, the students were very active and participative with questions and doubts about the samples and their analysis.

This initiative responds to the line of action developed by the SGIker of UPV/EHU, in its second year of edition, to encourage among young people their inclination towards scientific careers, showing them the different facets of research activity.