The article, ‘Baby doe’, Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics, shares a heartbreaking story on how a toddler was found in a plastic bag on the beach in Massachusetts. The case remained unsolved, until two months later. The pollen particles on the girl have been a tremendous help in solving this case, as to how and why this girl was killed and left on the beach. The pollen particles found on the girl's clothing and body was detected to be from around the area that she was left, around boston. Forensic palynology, or the scientific method of establishing “pollen prints” is now the main resource for solving this investigation. Vaughn Bryant, the director of the palynology laboratory at Texas A&M University said, “You’re looking for a combination of things – the percent of pine, the mixture of the different spores… every place has a unique pollen print. When it works, it works really well.” Figure out what happened to this young girl, and where she is from has been a lot easier using the forensic palynology.
Forensic Palynology is not used very often in the United States, but outside of the States it is used frequently. Bryant said it should be used more in the United States, and one key reason being, pollen won’t erase from your clothes even if you wash them. This article is relevant and important to our lives and forensics because it shares the importance Forensic Palynology, which is rarely used here in the US. Forensic scientists have used Palynology for the Baby Doe case, and identifying the home regions of immigrants who die in the desert and have no means of identification, but that is about it. The effect it had on the Baby Doe case is huge, and it should prove to scientists here in the United States to use this method more often.
I thought this was an overall very interesting and insightful article. I thought it could have included a lit more information about the Baby Doe case, and could have gone into more depth about how it all played out. It could have explained how she died, and who the parents were. I thought it had a lot of good information, and great reasoning behind the fact that this type of forensics should be used here in the United States. I really enjoyed this article, and thought the story behind it was very interesting.
Augenstein, Seth. "'Baby Doe' Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics."Forensic Magazine. N.p., 27 Aug. 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2015/08/baby-doe-breakthrough-showcases-pollen-forensics?cmpid
4 comments:
Lilly was able to successfully catch a reader's’ attention with the opening sentence about the “heartbreaking story” of a toddler who was discovered in a plastic bag on a Massachusetts beach. She went straight to the point of the article, “‘Baby Doe’, Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics, about how the pollen particles found on “Baby Doe’s” clothing is playing a key role in the discovery of who this little girl is. It was interesting to know that the “pollen prints” found on the clothing targeted Boston to be the girl’s home city. Lilly created a review that flowed nearly effortlessly from each sentence and from each of the paragraphs. She introduced the readers to the case at hand, then transitioned into the importance of palynology, or the “scientific method of establishing ‘pollen prints’”, to finding the identity of the toddler, and finally discussed the lack of the usage of forensic palynology in the United States and why this case supports the need to increase the usage of this method. Also well executed in this review was the use of a quote to enhance the argument presented. The quote by Vaughn Bryant, who is the director of the palynology lab at Texas A&M, explained why forensic palynologists have the ability to specify where a person has been based on the pollen particles found on their clothing. Lastly, as a reader, I was glad that Lilly included another instance in which this method was used. It was interesting to discover that forensic scientists in the United States have used palynology to identify the home regions of those immigrants who have died in the desert. Overall, I believe that the review of this article was fair and executed thoughtfully.
However, grammar issues often inhibited the understanding of certain points. Those particular sentences had to be read numerous times in order to comprehend what was being stated. The original article also included the downside of palynology, which was that pollen is easily contaminated, therefore, not the most reliable source of evidence. Finally, the article does have additional cases in which “pollen prints” was an important key to solving a case, such as the unidentified girl who had been found in a corn field nearby to Rochester, New York. She was eventually identified as Tammy Jo Alexander who was from Livingston County, Florida, although Vaughn Bryant and his team were initially between California and Florida as her home state. These improvements could make the overall review stronger and more of a solid piece.
I was especially impressed by the fact that “pollen samples can tell where someone or something has been”. Also, I never considered the fact that “Every place has a unique pollen print”. Now it is possible to determine where a person has been or where they live based on the pollen particles found on their clothing. I am amazed by the advancements in forensic science and that they sometimes tend to be found in the most unsuspecting places, such as these “pollen prints”.
Gianna DiMinno
In Lilly Grass article about “Baby Doe” had been very intriguing. It was about a toddler being found in a plastic bag on a beach in Massachusetts. She described how it was unsolved until two months after the death of the baby. To solve this case, the pollen particles on the baby girl had given evidence to how the toddler was killed and when she was left on the beach. The pollen particles found on the toddlers clothes led investigators to find out the area she was left in and killed in. It was around Boston. She talked about how in the article there was a scientific method called Forensic Palynology which establishes “pollen prints” and that was main source of finding out about the toddler. She did a good job describing what pollen prints was and how it helped the investigators in the case solve what happened. She also did a good job explaining who Vaughn Bryant was and how he was the director of the palynology laboratory at Texas A&M University and what his opinion on pollen prints were and how it works. She also described how Forensic Palynology is not often used in the United States, but in other countries it is frequently used. Even though, she did a very well job explaining and describing the article, there was room for improvement. She could have explained in deeper detail what palynology was because it is a little vague and hard to continue the article without knowing in detail what it was. Another area of improvement was describing more about the baby doe case and what had happened in it because that is the attention grabber of the article as well as the solving of the case. I learned a lot from reading Lilly’s article. I learned that there is a evidence technique called “pollen prints” and I learned that you can use it to figure out the time and place of death. I also learned about Forensic Palynology. It had influenced my knowledge because now I know that besides maggots on the body to figure out the time and place of the death, there is another evidence technique that can solve a crime.
I read Lilly’s article: ‘Baby doe’, Breakthrough Showcases Pollen Forensics. She did a really great job summarizing and providing a lot of information about this article. I found this article to be interesting, especially when reading that pollen particles found on clothing help investigators in solving this case, helping them know why and how the little girl was killed and left abandoned on the beach. I was astounded, when I found out that even if one washes their clothes, the pollen won’t go away. This benefits crime investigators, aiding them to solving their cases. I would have never guessed that the scientific method of establishing “pollen prints” is now one of the main resources for solving this investigation. I wonder why Forensic Palynology isn’t used very often in the United States, if its a very useful resource for crime investigators.
I think this article review would have been better if it had included what clues they found on the girl from the pollen prints. It could have also been better if there was more background information on the case on the dead girl.
I was impressed to discover that every place has a unique pollen print.
Helen, I really enjoyed reading your review of the article “9,000-Year-Old Decapitation Discovered in Brazil.” There were many things that stood out. One, your summary was very good. You got right to the point, and put enough detail in that the topic made sense, but wasn’t overwhelming. Second, I liked how you talked about the significance of this discovery. You mentioned how this discovery made some experts reevaluate what they had previously thought. I also liked how you defined some of the terms you used in your review and that were present in the article. This helps to make your review easier to follow. Although you did a great job, I feel there are a few things you could do to make your review even better. One, you mention diagrams that were in your article, so maybe you could add them to your review to make it even easier to understand. Second, maybe you could add a quote or two from the experts you mentioned. This would make your review even stronger. One thing I learned from your review is what exactly accelerated mass spectronomy is. Previously, I didn’t know this was a technique for measuring long-lived radionuclides that occur naturally in our environment. I especially didn’t know that you could use this info to date bones. Overall, I really enjoyed reading your review.
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