_applied sciences_  
_Editorial_  
Advances in Analytical Methods for Cultural Heritage  
**[PERSON] 1,*\({}^{*}\)** and [PERSON] 2,*\({}^{*}\)**  
Conservation science, also referred to as heritage science or cultural heritage science, is a unique field of scientific inquiry that addresses specific questions derived from the world of art, archaeology, architecture, and archives. Here, analytical methods strive to shed light on artistic practice and technologies, preserve cultural heritage in controlled or uncontrolled environments, or determine ways to extend the lifetime of an art object. The field merges concepts from myriad other technical fields, including--but not limited to--anthropology, archaeometry, engineering, chemistry, physics, geology, biology, metallurgy, materials science, computer science, art history, and studio art. Focus areas have included investigating the composition of art objects, developing analytical methods that require little to no physical sampling, using portable equipment that permits analysis of artifacts in situ, inventing instrumental devices to address gaps in our understanding of the behavior of materials found in art, or collaborating with scientists outside the field to gain access to cutting-edge instrumentation and knowledge to answer questions pertaining to cultural heritage. The earliest studies in the field involved the implementation of existing technologies to study art. One example dates to the late 1890s, just after X-rays were discovered, when a radiographic image of a painting was taken [1]. In the intervening years, countless techniques originally developed for other purposes have been applied to the investigation of art materials and objects. Over time, significant advances in the analytical world have enhanced the field's understanding of artists' materials and methods, the environment, and the impact of time on cultural heritage. For instance, several traditional pointwise techniques, including X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy, fiber optics reflectance spectroscopy (FORS), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), have recently crossed the frontier from single location analysis into the world of chemical imaging, providing cultural heritage professionals with valuable means to map the spatial distribution of a wide variety of organic and inorganic materials across a given surface [2, 3, 4]. Thanks to the development of automated scanning frames and advanced sensors for ultra-sensitive detection on a macroscopic and microscopic scale, these techniques have also yielded high-resolution data with progressively reduced acquisition times. The resulting information-rich visual output may serve a multifold purpose in terms of materials identification, documentation of an object's preservation state, enhancement of its relevance within a collection, and enjoyment by the public. Instrument manufacturers and research groups worldwide have also successfully combined multiple analytical tools within one instrumental unit, enabling the investigation of complex artifacts by delivering multimodal datasets from cumulative acquisition campaigns. Extant examples of these hyphenated techniques that have found increasing application in the cultural heritage world include XRF/reflectance imaging spectroscopy (RIS), XRF/X-ray diffractometry (XRD), XRD/Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)/Raman spectroscopy [5, 6]. In addition, significant advances in the analysis of organic residues belonging to different molecular classes using proteomics, lipidomics, and glycomics have allowed researchers to safely remove trace-level material from museum objects, resolve complex mixtures, and achieve detailed specimen characterization at the molecular level [7]. Non-destructive analytical methodologies are ideal for collecting data while preserving the physical integrity of irreplaceable objects.