In the past, forensics scientists in North Carolina have discovered that weight correlates with bone shape. Before this research, one of the main flaws of identifying unknown skeletal remains was that forensic scientists were unable to determine how much an individual weighed based on his or her skeleton. This new research, however, give experts in the field of anthropology the ability to what the shape of a femur can tell us about the weight of an individual. Although the research does not give scientists the ability to provide individuals exact weight based on their skeletal remains, it does allow for them to determine whether an individual was over or under weight. Professor Ross of NC State said, “Researchers found that the heavier an individual was, the wider the shaft of that person’s femur. Our researchers have hypothesized that the femur of an overweight person is more robust because it bears more weight, but also because overweight individuals move and walk differently to compensate for their greater mass.” Ross believes that this discover will be only the start over more breakthroughs in forensics skeletal evaluation. He is very optimistic that in the near future forensics scientists will be able to determine the exact weight of individual’s skeletal remains.
This article is very important to society because it can potentially revolutionize forensics anthropology. Determining the weight of individual’s skeletal remains has been something forensics scientists have never been able to do. However, with this recent breakthrough it shows that scientists are getting very close and will be able to determine the weight of individual’s skeletal remains in the near future.
I chose this article because I was unaware of this new discovery. I was very interested in the advances forensic scientists have made in the field of anthropology. This new method could be immensely beneficial for the law enforcement. I thought this article was pretty well written, but I thought it could have included more details regarding the topic.
Bibliography: Mills, James. "Forensic Anthropology Study Correlates Weight with Bone Shape." Forensic Magazine. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.
posted for R. Minetti
2 comments:
I think that the three things that impressed me most about Russell's article would have to be the simplicity, good cover of detail, and how intriguing the article was. Russell was able to find a good balance between not making the article too complex to the point of confusion but adding enough detail to not make it too brief. I also found the topic very interesting. Two suggestions I could make towards improving the article would have to be to tell us if this type of anthropology is being used now, and if it has helped in any forensic cases. One aspect of the review that I was not aware of was the fact that larger people actually do have larger bones. I know the cliche line has always been "I'm not fat, just big boned." But in an interesting was it is sort of true.
I liked the analysis of this article. Three things that were interesting about this article were: weight has to do with the bone shape, that a scientist can determine the exact weight of an individual’s remains, and that there is this new method. Although this article was well written , it could have been better if he had mentioned if this new type of forensic anthropology is used in cases nowadays. One thing that impressed me was that forensic anthropology is being used in the law enforcement.
Post a Comment