Chromatography was invented by the Russian botanist Mikhail Tswett (1872–1919) in the early 1900s. The technique was first used to separate different plant pigments from one another. Chromatography has developed into a widely used method to separate various components of a substance from one another. Three types of chromatography are high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography, and paper chromatography. Different chromatography techniques are used in forensic science and analytical laboratories.