In this article, it focuses on a device that can help determine the time elapsed since death of victims in natural disasters. Currently the “gold standard” in this type of recovery is a specially trained kind of dog. While they are able to locate bodies in disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, it takes a lot of money and manpower to train them and the time since death cannot be determined. The way these dogs can find the body is the scent of at least one of thirty compounds a body releases during its death. For a more cost effective method, as well as more knowledgeable discoveries, scientists are working on a device that would work by detecting one of these thirty compounds. Not only would it be able to locate the source, but also with its ability to identify the compound in the air, they process of determining the time of death would be much more accessible.
Monday, December 14, 2009
'Smell Of Death' Research Could Help Recover Bodies In Disasters And Solve Crimes
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090816211837.htm
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6 comments:
The article, ‘Smell Of Death' Research Could Help Recover Bodies In Disasters And Solve Crimes,’ discusses how forensic scientists are trying to acquire a better way of finding bodies in disasters. It is well presented how the current process used is dogs with their strong sense of smell. As well, they can find the body by the scent of at least one of thirty compounds a body releases during its death. In addition, forensic scientists wish to have the technology that could sense the compounds and determine the time of death at the same time.
A suggestion for this article review would be to mention if it is just as expensive to build this new technology, as it is to train the dogs. Another recommendation would be to give an example of a recent disaster where the use of this machine would have been highly useful. Overall, the article was well reviewed and interesting. I learned from this article that when examining a body recovered from a disaster, it is very difficult to uncover its time of death. This is possible because the stages of decay could have been altered.
What I found very interesting about this article was that it was another example of how far technology has come. Dogs have always been used to sniff out bodies in natural disasters but now scientists are working on a device that could replace dogs. Training dogs to do this is very expensive and it was interesting to learn how this device could save money which can go towards advancing other technology instead of training dogs. It was also interesting to learn that this device can detect one of the thirty compounds released after death. Dogs too cannot determine time of death but the article mentions that this device might be able to do that which would be a huge advance in forensic technology.
What I would like to have read more about is how much money this device is saving and how the excess money is being used. I would also like to have known how exactly the technology works and how it would be possible to duplicate a dogs sense of smell. I would also like to know if this device can be used in regular crime scenes to determine time of death and not just at the scenes of natural disasters.
Something that I am very interested in learning about is what this device looks like and how big it is going to be. Dogs are easily transportable and I am wondering if this device will be too or will the money saved on using the device instead of dogs wind up being used to transport the device.
Three aspecs of this review that I thought were presented particulary were that it included a lot of deatil. Also, it was very informative about how this would make determining the time of death much more accessible. Lastly, I thought it was very interesting how reserached can help recover bodies in disasters. Two suggestions on how this review could be made even better include more detail about the dogs' sense of smell. Also, I woudl reccomend explain how this device would work. Overall, I was very impressed with this article and learned many new things.
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In this article, David did a nice job of stating how the technique we use today with specailly trained dogs can be very affective, but very costly as well. Another good aspect was that he explained that not only can they sense the compound from the body to determine where the body is, but also how long the body has been deceased for. It would have been nice if he had explained what made the dog or the machine be able to sense a body, like what kind of compound a body realeses. Also, it would have been good if he had said how often these dogs are used in situations like he described. All in all, I thought that it was a good article and description of how these methods can be affective but they are also expensive and scientists are trying to find more cheap yet equal effective method.
This article is very interesting it discusses how scientists are trying to find new ways to find dead old bodies. It is interesting to why they would try and get rid of the dogs. It has always seemed like a tradition to have hound dogs smell the drugs or bodies. You could give an example to when or in what situation they would usually use these type of dogs. It was very new learning about the dogs sense of smell I didn't know that dogs didn't have a different sense of smell than humans. I just thought that they had stronger noses. But these is just a testament to how far technology has actually come.
I enjoyed that this article presented an alternative to a current practice of forensic science; it is always interesting to learn of new forms of investigation. In addition, the review was written in a nice brief manner and in a way that was very easy to understand without confusing vocabulary that characterizes many of these reviews.
However I would have enjoyed more detail on this device that scientists are working on. It seemed like the main esscence of the article was missed. Also, I would have liked to have known about the progress scientists are making with this device and when it might be put into practice.
IT was interesting to learn that new standards are being developed, such as this one, despite effective methods currently existing. This just goes to show taht the realm of science is a continual realm of advancement.
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