Traditionally 2 types of radiology are used in mass fatality and temporary mortuary investigations -that of fluoroscopy and plain x-ray.
These techniques however are time consuming, yield limited information and are a health and safety hazard to those working in the environment due to the use of radiological equipment outside their normal working area. They are also not undertaken at the scene of the incident.
As far as we know, for the first time in the world a new radiological system was used recently at a mass fatality investigation. A team of researchers led by Professor Guy Rutty of the University of Leicester Forensic Pathology Unit used a mobile MSCT scanner at the mortuary for the examination of the victims of a vehicle mass fatality incident.
This instrument provided superior information in 2 dimensional plain film (AP and lateral) and 3 dimensional multi-slice examination with on-site soft tissue and bony reconstruction. The system proved faster then traditional temporary mortuary radiology yielding greater information related to identification, health and safety, autopsy planning and cause of death.
Professor Rutty said: "The demonstration of the ability to utilise mobile MSCT technology under these circumstances may result in a complete rethinking of the type of radiology to be used in temporary mortuaries or mass fatalities scenes. The work presently being undertaken by my research team within the Forensic Pathology Unit at the University of Leicester in this area is hoped to develop new approaches to mass fatality radiological investigation which may be adopted throughout the world."
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Gun databases fail
Seven years ago, New York started a database of "ballistic fingerprints" for all new handguns sold in the state. The bill's backers sold it as a crime-solving device, arguing that the state would now have a sample of a spent shell and bullet for every new gun sold. This, they said, would help police connect future evidence from crime scenes to specific guns.
Since then, the authorities have entered 200,000 newly purchased guns into the database and spent $1 million dollars a year on the system. Yet it hasn't led to a single solved crime. The only other state with such a database, Maryland, can attribute at least one conviction to the system since it was created in 2000-more than zero, but few enough that the state's own Police Forensics Division has suggested scrapping the program because of its demonstrated lack of benefits.
This hasn't come as a surprise to gun rights activists, who pointed to several potential problems when the databases were originally debated. Among them: The markings left by a gun are not guaranteed to be the same over the long term and can be deliberately changed with simple expedients such as filing inside the barrel; the vast majority of guns used in crimes are stolen or otherwise obtained in a black market, not used by their original legal owner; devoting so much record keeping to every gun sold guarantees wasted effort, since less than 1 percent of all guns sold will ever be used in a crime.
In 2003 a report from the California Attorney General's Office recommended against launching such a program because of its likely ineffectiveness in crime solving. And a March 2008 study from the National Research Council recommended against a national version of the New York and Maryland databases. In addition to noting the obvious ways in which such a program could be easily circumvented by criminals, the study said the theory behind the ballistics databases—that every gun marks shells and bullets in specific, stable, identifiable ways—has not been scientifically proven.
Since then, the authorities have entered 200,000 newly purchased guns into the database and spent $1 million dollars a year on the system. Yet it hasn't led to a single solved crime. The only other state with such a database, Maryland, can attribute at least one conviction to the system since it was created in 2000-more than zero, but few enough that the state's own Police Forensics Division has suggested scrapping the program because of its demonstrated lack of benefits.
This hasn't come as a surprise to gun rights activists, who pointed to several potential problems when the databases were originally debated. Among them: The markings left by a gun are not guaranteed to be the same over the long term and can be deliberately changed with simple expedients such as filing inside the barrel; the vast majority of guns used in crimes are stolen or otherwise obtained in a black market, not used by their original legal owner; devoting so much record keeping to every gun sold guarantees wasted effort, since less than 1 percent of all guns sold will ever be used in a crime.
In 2003 a report from the California Attorney General's Office recommended against launching such a program because of its likely ineffectiveness in crime solving. And a March 2008 study from the National Research Council recommended against a national version of the New York and Maryland databases. In addition to noting the obvious ways in which such a program could be easily circumvented by criminals, the study said the theory behind the ballistics databases—that every gun marks shells and bullets in specific, stable, identifiable ways—has not been scientifically proven.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
New Technique Developed To Date Forensic Death Based On Corpse Microorganisms
The Article “New Technique Developed To Date Forensic Death Based On Corpse Microorganisms” discusses a new way to determining ETD. Developed at the University of Granada, this new technique uses thermo-microbiology. This can more accurately determine ETD for deaths that have not occurred under controlled natural conditions, which is the case for most murders. The thermo-biology establishes correspondences between the parameters of micro-organic growth on cadaverous remains and dates the time of death of such remains, as well as their relation with their temperature. This method was tested by analyzing about 240 microorganic samples taken from bodies from the Institute of Legal Medicine of Granada and 352 from living donors. The aim of the research work was to bring criminalistic techniques, “closer to the analysis of the phenomenons caused during the stages of cadaverous decomposition and putrefaction,” in order to reach a better approach to the ETD. They wanted to establish a microbiological indicator of time of death.
Increasing Use of Brain Scans in India
India has become the first country to convict someone of a crime relying on evidence from a brain scanner. The scanner is able to produce images of the human mind in action and is said to reveal signs that a suspect remembers details of the crime in question. Since the September 11 attacks, the U.S. has spent money to produce more counterterrorism investigations by brain-based lie detection. This technology has not been accepted as evidence except in India, where judges have begun to admit brain scans. Electrodes are placed on the suspect's head to measure electrical waves while an investigator reads aloud details of the crime and the resulting brain images are then processed. When the crime's details are recited, the brain lights up in specific regions, showing measurable changes when experiences are relived. The inventors of the technology claim the system can distinguish between people’s memories of events they witnessed and between deeds they committed. The Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test, or BEOS, was developed by Champadi Raman Mukundan, a neuroscientist who once ran the psychology department of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bangalore. Maharashtra and Gujarat, two states in India, have been impressed enough to set up labs using BEOS for their prosecutors. If brain scans are widely adopted, they would cause legal issues, such as implicating the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and 14th Amendments in the U.S. Constitution. In the past, methods of eliciting truth have been problematic: truth drugs made suspects babble while polygraph tests measured anxiety and not deception.
Friday, April 17, 2009
New Technique Developed to Date Forensic Death Based on Corpse Microorganisms
A group of scientists of the University of Granada has developed a new technique of forensic dating based on thermo-microbiology, which will allow to determine more accurately the time of a death which has not occurred under controlled natural conditions or as a consequence of a crime.
This new system, of great interest in the field of criminology, establishes correspondences between the parameters of micro-organic growth on cadaverous remains and dates the time of death of such remains, as well as their relation with their temperature.
The study has been carried out by Professor Isabel Fernández Corcobado and supervised by Professors Miguel Botella López, of the Laboratory of Anthropology of the UGR, and Eulogio Bedmar Gómez of the Zaidín Experimental Station (CSIC). The purpose of the project was to establish the initial methodological basis to create a protocol of general application in the field of Forensic Termography and Microbiology in order to provide new complementary tools to existing criminalistic techniques.
Such protocol would provide a new criminalictic approach to the traditional techniques already used in the microbiological analysis of samples of all kinds. The researchers report that, in the analysis carried out with this new technique would provide information resulting of the new and fast contrast elements during the criminalistic investigation to the forensic and political and judicial investigation teams.
To carry out this work, the authors analysed about 240 microorganic samples taken from bodies from the Institute of Legal Medicine of Granada and 352 from living donors.
According to Isabel Fernández, the aim of the research work was to bring criminalistic techniques closer to the analysis of the phenomenons caused during the stages of cadaverous decomposition and putrefaction, in order to reach a better approach to the estimate of the time of death.
They have used new thermographical and weather measurement tools and they have applied traditional microbiological methods with a new approach. The purpose was to make easier the analysis of the stages of cadaverous decomposition and putrefaction, connecting them with the model of growth/death of the micro-organisms, responsible for the post-mortem alterations. The aim of this work, in short, is to establish a microbiological indicator to determine the time of death.
Therefore, scientists have tried an alternative method of approach to the estimated time of death in order to reduce the present margin of error in the application of other different methods and limit to the maximum the moment of death.
The results of this research, which will be extended after its preliminary results in order to definitely validate the method, have been published in the Journal of the Biologists’
This new system, of great interest in the field of criminology, establishes correspondences between the parameters of micro-organic growth on cadaverous remains and dates the time of death of such remains, as well as their relation with their temperature.
The study has been carried out by Professor Isabel Fernández Corcobado and supervised by Professors Miguel Botella López, of the Laboratory of Anthropology of the UGR, and Eulogio Bedmar Gómez of the Zaidín Experimental Station (CSIC). The purpose of the project was to establish the initial methodological basis to create a protocol of general application in the field of Forensic Termography and Microbiology in order to provide new complementary tools to existing criminalistic techniques.
Such protocol would provide a new criminalictic approach to the traditional techniques already used in the microbiological analysis of samples of all kinds. The researchers report that, in the analysis carried out with this new technique would provide information resulting of the new and fast contrast elements during the criminalistic investigation to the forensic and political and judicial investigation teams.
To carry out this work, the authors analysed about 240 microorganic samples taken from bodies from the Institute of Legal Medicine of Granada and 352 from living donors.
According to Isabel Fernández, the aim of the research work was to bring criminalistic techniques closer to the analysis of the phenomenons caused during the stages of cadaverous decomposition and putrefaction, in order to reach a better approach to the estimate of the time of death.
They have used new thermographical and weather measurement tools and they have applied traditional microbiological methods with a new approach. The purpose was to make easier the analysis of the stages of cadaverous decomposition and putrefaction, connecting them with the model of growth/death of the micro-organisms, responsible for the post-mortem alterations. The aim of this work, in short, is to establish a microbiological indicator to determine the time of death.
Therefore, scientists have tried an alternative method of approach to the estimated time of death in order to reduce the present margin of error in the application of other different methods and limit to the maximum the moment of death.
The results of this research, which will be extended after its preliminary results in order to definitely validate the method, have been published in the Journal of the Biologists’
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
I Guess DNA Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090412081315.ht
A new study has found that DNA isn’t everything when determining certain physical characteristics. Research into "epigenetics"(the study of factors that change Characteristics other than DNA...such as the Environment) has shown that environmental factors affect characteristics of organisms. These changes are sometimes passed on to the offspring. Renato Paro (an ETH professor) does not believe that this opposes Darwin’s theory of evolution, while others do.
"A certain laboratory strain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has white eyes. If the surrounding temperature of the fly embryos, (which is normally nurtured at 25 degrees Celsius) is raised to 37 degrees Celsius, the flies later hatch with red eyes. If these flies are again crossed, the following generations are partly red-eyed – without further temperature treatment – even though only white-eyed flies are expected according to the rules of genetics." - Professor Renato Paro
Researchers in a group led by the professor for "Biosystems at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE)" crossed breaded flies of six generations. With this experiment they were able to determine that temperature treatment changes the eye color of this specific strain of fly, as well as treat individual flies so they pass on the changes to their offspring over several generations. Scientists have been able to alter DNA to affect the outcome of eye color to be other than what they inherit genetically from their parents for quite some time now, so this in and of it’s self is not as important. What makes this discovery groundbreaking is twofold; 1) the eye color of the flies was changed by different temperatures in the environment surrounding the embryos. 2) After the eye color was changed and then cross-breaded, in comparison to samples of DNA taken before the change in temp and therefore Eye color the DNA strand responsible for eye color remained completely unchanged.
If it's still a little confusing think of it like this: The DNA sequence for the gene responsible for eye color was proven to remain the same for white-eyed parents and red-eyed offspring.
However, what still remains a mystery to scientists is 1) how eye color of a fly can be changed by natural means (Temperature), 2) how the gene responsible for determining eye color can remain unchanged while the eye color does change, 3) as well as how its possible for the change to occur without effecting DNA and yet it's passed onto their offspring. To help explain what makes this unique, hypothetically it’s like if mother who is in the beginning stages of pregnancy got a cut on her arm that left a scar then her child was born with the same exact scar on his/her own arm. The scar does not affect the DNA sequence, and children inherit their characteristics via DNA, So the question remains how is it possible for a characteristic to be passed on from parent to offspring if its not written into the DNA sequence while the characteristic changes, but the DNA strand that determines if it changes remains the same without alteration
A new study has found that DNA isn’t everything when determining certain physical characteristics. Research into "epigenetics"(the study of factors that change Characteristics other than DNA...such as the Environment) has shown that environmental factors affect characteristics of organisms. These changes are sometimes passed on to the offspring. Renato Paro (an ETH professor) does not believe that this opposes Darwin’s theory of evolution, while others do.
"A certain laboratory strain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has white eyes. If the surrounding temperature of the fly embryos, (which is normally nurtured at 25 degrees Celsius) is raised to 37 degrees Celsius, the flies later hatch with red eyes. If these flies are again crossed, the following generations are partly red-eyed – without further temperature treatment – even though only white-eyed flies are expected according to the rules of genetics." - Professor Renato Paro
Researchers in a group led by the professor for "Biosystems at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE)" crossed breaded flies of six generations. With this experiment they were able to determine that temperature treatment changes the eye color of this specific strain of fly, as well as treat individual flies so they pass on the changes to their offspring over several generations. Scientists have been able to alter DNA to affect the outcome of eye color to be other than what they inherit genetically from their parents for quite some time now, so this in and of it’s self is not as important. What makes this discovery groundbreaking is twofold; 1) the eye color of the flies was changed by different temperatures in the environment surrounding the embryos. 2) After the eye color was changed and then cross-breaded, in comparison to samples of DNA taken before the change in temp and therefore Eye color the DNA strand responsible for eye color remained completely unchanged.
If it's still a little confusing think of it like this: The DNA sequence for the gene responsible for eye color was proven to remain the same for white-eyed parents and red-eyed offspring.
However, what still remains a mystery to scientists is 1) how eye color of a fly can be changed by natural means (Temperature), 2) how the gene responsible for determining eye color can remain unchanged while the eye color does change, 3) as well as how its possible for the change to occur without effecting DNA and yet it's passed onto their offspring. To help explain what makes this unique, hypothetically it’s like if mother who is in the beginning stages of pregnancy got a cut on her arm that left a scar then her child was born with the same exact scar on his/her own arm. The scar does not affect the DNA sequence, and children inherit their characteristics via DNA, So the question remains how is it possible for a characteristic to be passed on from parent to offspring if its not written into the DNA sequence while the characteristic changes, but the DNA strand that determines if it changes remains the same without alteration
Friday, April 10, 2009
'America's Most Wanted' Murder Case To Be Investigated By Pioneering UK Forensic Scientist
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081120073159.htm
A forensic scientist at the University of Leicester and Northamptonshire police are taking on a murder case on "Americas Most Wanted List." The brass shell casings from the doorstep shooting in an American suburb are being brought by a US detective to help the investigation. He is hoping that a revolutionary new forensic technique will provide a much needed breakthrough in the murder investigation. The technique in particular was developed by Dr. John Bond, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester Forensic Research Centre and Scientific Support Manager at Northamptonshire Police.
This method that has been developed by Dr. Bond enables scientists to "visualize fingerprints" even after the print itself has been removed. He and colleagues directed a study into the way fingerprints can corrode metal surfaces. This technique can, after firing, enhance a fingerprint that has been deposited on a small calibre metal cartridge case before it is fired.
Regarding the current investigation, Detective Roten said, “Our team of detectives has been working diligently to identify the killer of Marianne Wilkinson in December of 2007 in North Richland Hills, Texas. This case is very complex and it appears that Mrs. Wilkinson was not the intended victim in this homicide. I am very optimistic that Dr. Bond will be able to use his technique to find fingerprints on the shell casings of the murder weapon recovered during the investigation. This procedure could help us identify the person who loaded the murder weapon."
A forensic scientist at the University of Leicester and Northamptonshire police are taking on a murder case on "Americas Most Wanted List." The brass shell casings from the doorstep shooting in an American suburb are being brought by a US detective to help the investigation. He is hoping that a revolutionary new forensic technique will provide a much needed breakthrough in the murder investigation. The technique in particular was developed by Dr. John Bond, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester Forensic Research Centre and Scientific Support Manager at Northamptonshire Police.
This method that has been developed by Dr. Bond enables scientists to "visualize fingerprints" even after the print itself has been removed. He and colleagues directed a study into the way fingerprints can corrode metal surfaces. This technique can, after firing, enhance a fingerprint that has been deposited on a small calibre metal cartridge case before it is fired.
Regarding the current investigation, Detective Roten said, “Our team of detectives has been working diligently to identify the killer of Marianne Wilkinson in December of 2007 in North Richland Hills, Texas. This case is very complex and it appears that Mrs. Wilkinson was not the intended victim in this homicide. I am very optimistic that Dr. Bond will be able to use his technique to find fingerprints on the shell casings of the murder weapon recovered during the investigation. This procedure could help us identify the person who loaded the murder weapon."
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Researchers develop new technique to date forensic death based on corpse microorganisms
Scientist at the University of Granada just recently developed a technique of forensics dating base on thermo-microbiology, which will allow to determine more accurately the time of death not under natural conditions or as a consequence of a crime. This technology establishes corresponds between the parameters of micro-organic growth on cadaverous remains and dates the time of death to a high degree of accuracy. According to the leading scientist Isabel Fernandez the purpose of the research work was to bring criminalistic techniques closer to the analysis of the phenomenons caused during the stages of cadaverous decomposition and putrefaction, in order to reach a better time of death estimate. This discovery will hopefully be incorporated into a microbiological indicator to determine an individuals time of death based on this research. This new technique will greatly reduce the present margin of error in estimating time of death.
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