The Search for a Microbial Death Clock

Maggie Krieg

11/7/21

Forensics 

Current Event 7 

 

"The Search for a Microbial Death Clock," September 24, 2021, nij.ojp.gov: https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/search-microbial-death-clock

The article “The Search for a Microbial Death Clock” is about how forensic scientists are now using microbes usually involved in human decomposition to determine time of death. Usually forensic scientists use insects and physiological changes to determine a victim's time of death. However, there are certain conditions that can influence and alter the determination of time of death. For example, certain temperatures can affect the arrival of insects and change the way the body decomposes. Now, due to the advancement of DNA technology, we can use the microbes that break down organs and other tissues to determine time of death. There have been many different “Body farms” that have been using this microbial progression of decomposition, and there has been lots of data that has been collected. Such as, the difference between when insects are active and when the bacteria is active. The more information you have, the more accurate the investigation is going to be. 

This is very important for forensic science. It is going to make investigations more accurate. As well as more ways to determine the time of death of a body. Since there are many ways that a post mortem interval can be changed (due to temperature, location, etc…) this new technology will allow for forensic scientists to have much more accurate information when discovering the time of death of a victim, and hopefully more insight on cause of death. 

The author of this article did a wonderful job when writing this article. I thought that they were clear and did a good job explaining what this article is about. I thought that they could’ve expanded more on how this new technology was found. Other than that, I thought that this article was very interesting and very well written. 

 

A breath test for opioids

 

Alexa Kocur 

Current Event 7

 

University of California - Davis. "A breath test for opioids." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 October 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191004105645.htm>.

Original Article: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191004105645.htm 

 

This article is about how science has changed due to a new kind of technology. This technology is a breath test for patients that use opiods due to their medical issues. The breath test has made it easier for scientists to test patients. “Doctors and nurses treating chronic pain may need to monitor patients to make sure they are taking their drugs correctly, that their prescribed drugs are being metabolized properly and that they are not taking additional medications. Before this breath test detector was created, doctors would need to take blood tests which would take a very long time, so this creation has been a very positive and quick test that takes no time. 

This creation has brought a lot of changes to science, with the breath test to check and monitor patients that take opiods, doctors are continuing to take faster and more reliable measures to keep patients safe. 

I think that the author could've expanded more on the idea with the creation of the opioid breath test. The author should have added more on how it was created and how it has changed the science behind testing patients. This author was overall very to the point with his ideas and I feel like in some ways he could have explained further. 

Bones in the Backyard: How Police Cracked a Grisly Cold Case

 

Chris Kelty

Mr Ippolito

Forensics / D Even

November 9th, 2021

 

Link : https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/nyregion/bones-cold-case-nyc.html

 

Summary Paragraph           

This article is about a recent murer that was solved and it was from about 50 years ago in 1976 in Queens, New York. A man went to the barber one day in 1976 in Queens and never came back. People didn’t know where he went or what happened to him, but two years ago, a woman came forward to the police and said that in 1976, when she was a ten year old, she had seen her mother’s boyfriend burying a body in their backyard behind the barbershop. THe police dug up the dismembered remains of the man. Two years later, using ancestry sites, the DNA was traced to some of the man’s family members, and they found his identity. They also found who killed him, and it was one of the barbershop workers who knew that the man traveled with loads of cash on his person at all times.

 

Relevance Paragraph

            The relevance of this article is the use of new DNA tracing technology to help solve crimes. DNA tracing is such a crazy thing to think about and it was able to take the DNA of someone who had been dead fifty years and trace it back to his relatives in 2021. This is crazy stuff and it proves how newer and newer inventions and findings in the world of forensics can continue to make it easier to solve crimes.

           

Critique Paragraph

            One thing the author could have done better is explain how exactly the DNA was traced. I wonder if they got the DNA from the hair, bones, or some sort of flesh-like substance off of his dismembered body. It would be interesting to take a closer look at how the CSI people apprehend information from a body that old. Otherwise, the author did a great job.