Coating Clears Up Fingerprints

          Over the past few months scientists at Penn State University have been working on developing a coat that would clear up fingerprints. Sometimes scientists are not always able to retrieve fingerprints from certain objects. A group of scientists at Penn State have recently developed a “conformal coating process” that can reveal hard-to-develop fingerprints on nonporous surfaces without altering the chemistry of the print. Scientists Shaler and Ahklesh Lakhtakia, Charles Godfrey Binder “used a form of physical vapor deposition a method that uses a vacuum and allows vaporized materials to condense on a surface creating a thin film” This new process is very beneficial because it gives forensics scientists the ability to collect fingerprints from fragments of incendiary or explosive devices and still be able to analyze the chemicals that were used in the device. The coating material is heated in a vacuum, while the artifact to be coated is rotated fairly quickly to allow deposition over the entire surface. This process is very quick and efficient. It takes 15 minutes to produce the coating. These scientists are currently trying to develop “a portable device that could be brought to a crime scene and produce readable fingerprints on site.”

          This article is very important to society because it gives forensics scientists the ability to identify and collect fingerprints that they wouldn’t be able to do before. This process should be used because it will make the process of collecting hard to obtain fingerprint samples much easier.

          I chose this article because I was unaware of this new method. I was very interested in the advances forensic scientists have made in their field. This new method could be greatly 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.

White, James. "Coating Clears Up Fingerprints." Forensic Magazine. Web. 22 May 2011. <http://www.forensicmag.com/news/coating-clears-fingerprints>.

Posted for R.Minetti

Forensic Student Displays Artistic Talent

          To emphasize the need to develop our students' talents across the WHOLE curriculum, here are examples of our science students, who have also spent significant time pursuing and developing their artistic talent. In these hard economic times too often cuts are made in the arts. These works are strong evidence for educators and communities to insist on maintaining a full and meaningful curriculum!!

    Kyrie chose for her AP Art portfolio to produce digital renderings of the story behind foxes in Japanese folklore. Currently, Kyrie is a student in the Forensics course. She has taken four years of science in Bronxville, the "Core", our half year Freshman and Sophomore science courses (Core Chemistry Honors, Core Physics Honors, Core Biology Honors and Core Earth Science), and Biology II Honors. Kyrie has also taken AP courses in AP English Literature.

Forensic Scientists Improve DNA Analysis With Mummy-inspired Bone-baking

Original Text:
February 1, 2008 — Forensic scientists analyzing bones found in the Gobi desert discovered that the DNA within them could be surprisingly easily extracted. In an experiment designed to mimic the conditions that affected those bones, baking a particularly difficult sample made the DNA much more easily extracted, probably because it makes it easier to break open more cells and expose more of the DNA molecules. Mummies have always held secrets, but now one of them has led to a new DNA technique.
Our fascination with mummies has sold millions at the box office. Now these preserved people -- mummies more than 800 years old -- are helping scientists reveal the mysteries of the past.
University of New Haven forensic scientist Dr. Heather Coyle is experimenting with a new technique by going back in time.
These are skeletal remains recently gathered from a Gobi desert cave. Surprisingly, Dr. Coyle was able to extract DNA from these mummies, but when she tried the same method on a body found in the USA, she was not as successful. "We realized that the bone we were trying to process was not yielding DNA from the case we were working on," Dr. Coyle said.
Standard DNA procedure for bones is to freeze them. When Coyle and her team re-examined the mummy remains they realized the Gobi desert created a natural bone baking process.
"It makes the bone more brittle so it makes it easier to grind and break open more cells, so we think we are accessing more DNA to begin with," Dr. Coyle said. Dr. Coyle decided to mimic nature by baking the cold case bones for 72 hours. Liquid nitrogen was then poured into a pulverizer. The bone was placed inside, ready to be crushed. After a short cycle the bone was turned to powder and ready for DNA extraction.
Coyle hopes her new technique will someday help close the book on several cold case files.

Summary:
When I was in sixth grade, I learned about Egyptian mummies in history class. Six years later, I found this article about forensic scientists in Egypt and how they could easily extract DNA from mummies! Even though the mummies had been dead for thousands of years, their DNA was still present. This article made me curious. How does a person’s DNA last for thousands of years? I thought the DNA had decomposed long ago. Not only did I find this article interesting myself; my parents were also amazed when I told them about it. Lastly, I would like to point out that this article reminded me of the King Tut exhibit at my favorite museum.
However, this article could have been done better in two ways. First of all, I think the original text was too long. Second, I think the author’s writing style was a little too opinionated. This is a news article, not an editorial!
Lastly, I think this article should not only be used in schools, I also think people outside of school (friends, family, penpals, etc.) might find this as interesting as I did. Hope you liked my summary, and don’t forget to comment. That is all.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0201-baking_out_dna.htm

A study on the effect of storage duration and fabric type on DNA quantity extracted from dried seminal stains.

http://www.forensicmag.com/article/storing-dna-fabric?page=0,0

          Sexual violence occurs in every culture, in all levels of society, and in every country of the world. In cases of sexual assault, especially in rape, examinations often involve searching items such as clothing and bedding for seminal stains.¹² The seminal stains recovered on fabrics in the form of stained clothing, undergarments, and swabs on fabric material taken from the vagina and surrounding regions are submitted to DNA fingerprinting tests to compare them with the blood sample of the accused person. Isolation of DNA from such stains, particularly when the stains are old, is usually not possible. The causes could be degradation or decomposition of the biological material,which depends mainly upon the environmental conditions. Extraction was performed by using a genomic DNA purification kit (QIA amp DNA investigator kit for isolation of total genomic DNA from material stained with semen) on the first day as well as after 14 and 30 days. The results from the first day were used as reference samples. DNA quantity in dried seminal stains decreases with increased storage duration, and DNA recovery from natural fabrics (cotton and silk) is much higher than from artificial fabric (polyester), with the maximum yield from cotton followed by silk and polyester. Therefore, in the medicolegal practice, it is recommended that cotton fabric be used for swabs for collection of seminal stains.

 

          This article affects all of humanity because rape is a serious problem around the whole world. With the help of DNA being extracted from clothing, many victims can be helped by the catching of the perpetrator.

 

          The article was long and structured. It broke down everything that was needed to be known and was well written. All key points were addressed and everything was explained properly.

Forensic Breakthrough: Recovering Fingerprints on Fabrics Could Turn Clothes Into Silent Witnesses

          Recently, Forensic experts at the University of Abertay Dundee and the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) are creating new forensic techniques within the field of fingerprints. The new research seeks to recover fingerprint ridge detail and impressions from fabrics. This usually is considered a difficult task.
This new technique is known as vacuum metal deposition (VMD). This new technique uses gold and zinc to recover the fingerprint mark that is being investigated as part of the research project. VMD is a highly sensitive technique already used to detect fingerprint marks on smooth surfaces such as carrier bags, plastics and glass.

          Joanna Fraser, a forensic sciences researcher at the University of Abertay Dundee, said: "The research uses fine layers of metals to display fingerprints people may have left on fabrics, something which is far harder to do with soft surfaces. The technique has been around since the 1970s and is used on many surfaces but was never widely used on fabrics.”
         
          The process begins when they place the fabrics in a vacuum chamber. Then they heat up the gold to evaporate, and spread a film over the fabric. Then they heat up the zinc, which attaches to the gold where there are no fingerprint residues. This helps see the fingerprints and is shown on the original fabric.
I thought that this article was very interesting. It is fascinating about the new techniques of fingerprinting and how this new development can prove that the suspect committed the crime or not.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110131073141.htm

On the Scene: Improvised Tools of the Trade

Sometimes the forensics techniques taught in classes and workshops, or the tools or equipment at an examiner’s disposal simply won’t work given the specifics of the crime scene. In such cases crime scene officers must try to think outside the box. This is how improvised forensics tools are developed. One example of an improvised tool is the Blue Light Special which was developed in 1994. At that time the only lights available to view semen, urine, and saliva samples at the crime scene were too large and too expensive to be used on field work. The blue light special fits on the head of a flashlight and has an amber viewing shield with a 455 nm blue filter included with the unit allows you to see semen, urine, and saliva stains right at the scene. Without such a portable light, you would have to collect everything at a scene that might possibly contain evidence. By identifying the evidence at the scene, you have the advantage of knowing what needs to be packaged and processed right away. Another improvised tool was developed when a crime scene officer needed to take pictures of a crime scene from a bird’s eye view but too far in overgrown woods to call in a truck. So he rigged a camera to the end of a pvc pipe. This is now called the Eagle-eye pole. A recent improvised tool is used to look for dust footprints on the floor. Normally a crime scene officer would have to hold a flashlight near the floor but this can be very uncomfortable. So one person attached a small light to the end of a broomstick on a 45 degree angle therefor the officer does not need to get so close to the floor to look for footprints.

This article relates to forensics scientist because the improvised tools mentioned in the article can be used by any crime scene officer. These tools are developed to try to make it easier for crime scene officers to find evidence at a crime scene.

This article was well written but the article just jumped from tool to tool. The tools were not connected at all except for the fact that they all where improvised.

http://www.forensicmag.com/article/scene-improvised-tools-trade?page=0,1

Cinderella Robbery

          On October 6th, a woman walking home was set upon by two men. One of which held a pistol to her. They walked her home in the attempt to rob her house. Upon arriving at the Woman's house, the lady's mother answered the door and was immediately knocked out by the robbers. The woman's husband heard the commotion and came running. After a scuffle and the lady hitting one of the robbers over the head with a lamp. The thieves decided life was too short and made a break for it. Unfortunately for one of these robbers, he left his sneaker at the scene of the crime. Forensic scientists were able to uncover the identity of the perpetrator by taking a DNA swab from his sneaker. After a few months of DNA research, scientists found a match to the sneaker. The robber had a prison record and an identifiable tattoo. Soon after the man was caught and put in prison.

          I thought this article was very interesting because it showed me that scientists can extract DNA from almost anything. They were able to capture a man purely by having his shoe. Another thing I thought was interesting was the fact that the man lost his shoe, I mean they are supposed to be tied to your feet. But I digress... I guess this man will tie up his laces before he committs his next crime.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/16/nyregion/queens-robbery-case-hinges-on-a-sneaker.html?ref=forensicscience

Osama bin Laden's DNA: How sure is 99.9 percent sure?

          Osama Bin Laden is dead, or so we think. After the shooting of Bin Laden, he was photographed and identified by his wife. John Brennan, assistant of homeland security, said “we can say with 99.9% confidence that this was Bin Laden.” A huge controversy rose. People wondered why they can’t be 100% positive, if they are so sure. His DNA analysis took less than 24 hours and in order to identify him, they compared his DNA to his relatives. The DNA test looks at short tandem repeat sequences and there are more shared repeating patterns in close relatives. However, Bin Laden’s DNA was considered a 99.9% confident, but his DNA was compared to his half sister! Since Bin Laden has no full siblings, his DNA results may be misleading.

          This article relates to the United States in particular. It touches on insecurities society has on the confidence of Bin Laden’s death. There is a possibility, very unlikely, that the body does not belong to Bin Laden, however, there is a high probability that that is not the case. Also, it is important for society to understand that DNA testing is never 100% accurate/confident and that there is always room for error.

          This article was well written and informative, however I would have liked to see the author put a positive perspective on Bin Laden’s death, rather than the concerning/no hope comment at the end. The article’s mood seemed pretty hopeless in terms of ever being confident in the body’s identification.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/forensics/osama-bin-ladens-dna-how-sure-is-ninety-nine-point-nine-percent-sure-5680593

Forensics: Overweight People Really Are Big-boned.

            My article was about the bone structure of overweight people. Forensic Anthropologists often have trouble determining what a person looked like based on their bones because they can’t tell how heavy that person was in life. A new study at the University of North Caroline shows that you can determine a person’s weight based on the size and shape of their femur and thighbone. Researchers found that the heavier an individual was, the wider the shaft of that person's femur. They think that this is because over weight people have to support more weight and because they walk differently. The study included only white males so only weight could affect the results.

           

            I choose this article because in my statistics class we learned about blocking and only using on portion of the population in a study and this was an actually study where they did that. The article is important to the world because now dry remains can be identified more easily and therefore more killers can be caught.

 The article was good but it could have been longer. Also the researchers were not named and I would have liked to see a case in which this was used.

"Forensics: Overweight People Really Are Big-boned." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. Web. 03 May 2011.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110322105300.htm
posted for J. Weir

Kevin Bisconti

There now is a new way to conduct autopsies without using any type surgery. This method can be used for natural and violent deaths alike also for individual deaths and mass fatalities. This new method is also friendly towards certain religions that have certain ceremonies for the deceased.

This new method came about from the University of Leicester under professor Rutty. The new autopsy starts off with an injection to the neck with contrast and take a full body CT (Computed Tomography) Scan by using this method forensic pathologist are able to determine up to 80% of deaths. This technique looks at the vessels of the heart of the deceased. This method also is very inexpensive and easy to use in all cases whether they are natural or unnatural death.. This still is in the works but the university plans to run many more test with many different scenarios.

I think that this was a very interesting article. However I don’t not think they went into that much detail about how the operation is done. I would have liked them to go into further detail about how the operation is preformed.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110301111253.htm

New Technique to Help Catch Sexual Offenders: Scientists Detect Condom Lubricant on Fingermarks for the First Time

Kyrie Abiko

While some sexual offenders think that they can get away with their crime by using a condom, a new technique being developed at Sheffield Hallam University puts them out of luck, for this new method can detect condom lubricant on fingerprints left by a suspect at a crime scene. This proves that the offender has had contact with a condom. This would enable forensic scientists to provide further support to the evidence in alleged cases of sexual assault.
Condoms have been used more often by sexual offenders for the reason of preventing the risk of STDs and the transfer of potential DNA evidence, thinking this would also lower the chance of them getting caught. However, this new method can link a suspect, identified by their fingermark, to the crime in one analysis and can aid police in proving that an offence has taken place. And it is hoped the technique might be used to match lubricant found on a fingermark with residues from vaginal swabs collected from the victim.
Researchers have even proved that this technique was successful even on fingermarks left several weeks before analysis. They also hope this technique can eventually be used to identify specific lubricants that can possibly indicate a specific condom manufacturer or even the particular brand. Researchers hope to find that breakthrough soon enough to further support evidence in cases of sexual assault in even a stronger way.
I thought this article was particularly interesting not just for the fact that this newly developed method can determine a suspect to be placed at the scene of a sexual assault, but also for the fact that the fingermarks in contact with lubricant can be carefully examined using advanced imaging equipment to map ridge patterns and therefore identify a specific individual as the suspect. It is also interesting that researchers might possibly find a way to identify the type of condom lubricant and/or identify the specific condom brand from the fingermarks.