New forensic science will identify Brazil's "disappeared"

Collaboration between forensic scientists from Sheffield and Brazil using a new DNA extraction technique has identified two homicide victims whose skeletonised bodies were found dumped in sugar cane plantations near S'£o Paulo in the late 1990s. The same technique is now to aid the task of identifying the remains of hundreds of victims of Brazil's former military governments.
Dr Marco Guimar'£es from the University of S'£o Paulo (Faculty of Medicine Ribeir'£o Preto) has been working with Dr Martin Evison of the Academic Unit of Forensic Pathology at the University of Sheffield on methods of DNA recovery from forensic and ancient skeletons.

Dr Evison explained, "DNA recovery from the skeleton is a very difficult technique, especially when the material originates from a climate as extreme as Brazil's. Usually there's hardly any DNA left, and what there is is extremely difficult to recover. In these cases we've been using a DNA extraction technique that I originally developed in Sheffield to analyse ancient DNA from archaeological skeletons.

"We're also applying a 'third generation' DNA profiling method, which is theoretically able to distinguish a single individual in the entire population of the planet."

The scientists are now turning their attention to older forensic cases: those of the desaparecidos-or disappeared-from the periods of military government in Brazil from 1964 to 1985. As a result of their preliminary research, a skeleton recovered from a clandestine cemetery discovered on the outskirts of S'£o Paulo city in 1990 is believed to be that of an individual last seen alive in 1972.

When he returns to Brazil, Dr Guimar'£es will be sharing the techniques he has developed in Sheffield with forensic pathologist Dr Daniel Mu'oz, appointed by the State of S'£o Paulo to oversee identification of a further twelve hundred skeletonised bodies recovered from the same clandestine cemetery.

The collaboration is one of the first fruits of a new University of Sheffield initiative to promote wider collaborative research in human identification science and to support the investigation of human rights abuses. Experts in forensic science, chemistry and molecular biology at the University are working with colleagues from other universities to develop sophisticated new human identification techniques and technologies and make them available worldwide for use in cases similar to the Brazilian investigation.

Threats And Responses: Documents;Forensic experts uncovered forgery on Iraq, an Inspector says

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that the forgery in a document intended to show Iraq trying to buy uranium from Niger was discovered by forensic experts. The agency's director said the experts found anomalies in the signatures, the letterhead and the format of the document. The forgery had been compared with authentic documents provided by Niger. The agency's director said that any number of groups would have had an interest in planting the document, which he said came from several sources.

Criminals Who Eat Processed Foods More Likely To Be Discovered, Through Fingerprint Sweat Corroding Metal

Dr John Bond, a researcher at the University of Leicester and scientific support officer at Northamptonshire Police, said processed food fans are more likely to leave tell-tale signs at a crime scene.Dr Bond, from Northamptonshire Police Scientific Support Unit is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester’s Forensic Research Centre. He has developed a method that enables scientists to ‘visualise fingerprints’ even after the print itself has been removed.Dr Bond said: “On the basis that processed foods tend to be high in salt as a preservative, the body needs to excrete excess salt which comes out as sweat through the pores in our fingers. Dr Bond added there was therefore an indirect link therefore between obesity and the chances of being caught of a crime. “Other research has drawn links between processed foods and obesity and we know that consumers of processed foods will leave better fingerprints,” he said. I found that this article was very interesting because i did not know that what a perosn eats affects their discovery in a crime.

'Environmental Forensics' Could Cut The Cost Of Brownfield Development

Environmental Forensics is an emerging scientific field, which could help investigators prove who is responsible for pollution. It could specifically help develop contaminated brownfield sites, which are abandoned industrial facilities available for re-use. Environmental forensics will determine who caused the incidence of pollution, as many brownfield sites usually have chemically contaminated soil or groundwater. Those found responsible for the pollution will then have to pay to clean the area up. Environmental forensics focuses on how and when the contamination occurred, the impact of the pollution, and whether an incident has been illegally covered up. The integration of forensic science will help guide the investigations, and make the legal proceedings faster. Professor Kalin stated, “Environmental forensics aims to offer an authoritative, effective and efficient way of proving or disproving liability for pollution,” says Professor Kalin. “It could reduce the scope for argument, minimise legal hold-ups, cut the length of court cases and so speed up brownfield development in future.” This field could even help the redevelopment of the site for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

"Vitreous Humor in the Eye Helps to Establish Time of Death

Just recently, a team of researchers from the University of Santiago Compostela has discovered that by analyzing several substances from the vitreous humour, forensic scientists can calculate the approximate time of death. Located in the eye, the vitreous humour contains potassium, urea, and hypoxantine concentrations. By analyzing these substances digitally through a specific computer software program, the post mortem interval is revealed and scientists can then determine the estimation of a corpses' time of death. By inserting each concentration of the three substances in, addition to the cause of death, into the software program, results are displayed graphically on the computer screen allowing scientists to draw up a quick and accurate estimation of the time of death.  This new method supplies forensic pathologists with a new quick and easy tool to use upon drawing up their estimations and will thereby prove beneficial to court systems and police personnel in solving complex criminal investigations.

What The Eyes Can Tell Us About The Time Of Death

A team of researchers from the team of Santiago de Compostela has discovered an interesting new way to establish Time Of Death. Their discovery is based on the analysis of several substances from the vitreous humour of the eye (which is the gelatinous liquid that is found behind the lens of the eye), and they have developed a piece of software that does the analysis, which makes it possible to establish precisely the time of death. The information will make the work of the police and the courts a lot easier.
To apply this technique, the researchers analyze potassium, urea and hypoxantine (a DNA metabolite) concentrations present in the vitreous humour of the eye of the human cadaver, and introduce these figures into a computer program. The software uses this information and is capable of establishing the time at which death occurred.

Hair-raising forensic breakthrough hailed

Scientists are developing ways to search for clues from radioactive elements in bones and hair that can help police solve crimes. A method of determining when murder victims were killed by analysing radioactive isotopes in their bones is already being used by police forces. The same researchers who developed that technique are now investigating ways of checking isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen in hair that can indicate where a person has been living. Water in different regions of the world produces subtly different isotopic signatures. By checking suspects' hair it may be possible in future for police to determine whether they have been honest about their whereabouts. The scientists' work suggests that a bald-headed individual with no body hair might in future be regarded as a suspicious character. Until now, establishing when murder victims have died from their decomposed remains has proved surprisingly difficult. "There are lots of different methods ranging from visual appearance right the way through to looking at insects and larvae," said Black, a professor from the University of Reading and one of the scientists developing the technique. The problem with those methods is that they are very temperature dependent, whereas the isotopic method is unaffected by temperature. Professor Black's team has now embarked on long term studies asking people about their diets and analysing the isotopic content of their hair. The results are expected in the next year or two.

New Forensic Course At North-Eastern University - Greg Hopwood -

North-Eastern University will begin its new course that will train detectives using methods popularised through tv shows such as CSI Miami. Undergraduates will be taught how to use criminology, forensic psychology, chemistry, pharmacology and computing to help solve crimes. The four year degree will result with professionals with knowledge of the advanced technologies used by modern police forces. Students will use case studies and be challenged to use modern techniques, such as artificial intelligence, to analyse forensic scene of crime data. They will be given the chance to put this knowledge to the test when they are possibly to be placed with jobs at Northumbria and West Midlands Police forces, the Harperley Hall Police training centre for Scene of Crime Officers, and at local organizations such as the Northumbria Coalition Against Crime. This program is being headed by Dr Giles Oatley, a senior lecturer at the university's artificial intelligence lab, the Centre for Adaptive Systems. He says: "The Home Office is emphasizing the use of technology-based solutions in crime fighting. Forensic data analysis, artificial intelligence and high quality programming abilities are the skills that criminal investigations of the future will demand, and this degree course will provide students with the skills necessary for a very interesting and enriching career.
"The degree provides students with an understanding of criminology, different types of forensic data and analysis techniques - just like the techniques used on CSI Miami."
The BSc (Hons) Forensic Computing degree begins in September 2005 and is believed to aid North-Eastern in attracting even more applicants in the coming years.

http://www.brightsurf.com/search/r-a/Forensic_pathology/1/Forensic_pathology_news.html

New Field Of Research Could Help Police In Crime Scene Forensics

On September 1,2008 the Science Daily had an article titled New Field of Research Could Help Police In Crime Scene Forensics. The article reported on a breakthrough in DNA identification. Scientists from the Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, have found a way to use high-density Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) genotyping microarrays to identify individual DNA from a sample of mixed DNA. Before, it was difficult for police to pick out specific DNA if it composed les than 10% of the sample. Now, they can pick out individual DNA from over 200 samples with this new technique, or if the specific DNA is less than .1%. As Dr. David W. Craig, the associate director of TGen’s Neurogenomics Division, explained, "By employing the powers of genomic technology, it is now possible to know with near certainty that a particular individual was at a particular location, even with only trace amounts of DNA and even if dozens or even hundreds of others were there, too.'' This will help police investigators to be more able to identify possible suspects at a crime scene.

Olivers Current Event

Scientists from the University of Illinois have created a new type of optical biosensors that can detect protein DNA interactions. The biosensors work for the identification of inhibitors of protein-nucleic acid and protein-protein interactions. These interactions are important for transcription, DNA damage repair, and apoptosis. These biosensors have a low refractive index polymer grating coated with a film of high refractive index titanium oxide. By examining light reflected from the photonic crystal, the scientists can tell when molecules are added to or removed from the crystal surface. The scientists have also expressed the possible ability to do experiments with protein-RNA interactions. The scientists also said that they have the ability to grow cancer cells on the photonic crystal surface.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080923121954.htm

Vitreous Humor In The Eye Helps To Establish Time Of Death

Researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela came up with a new method to estimate the approximate time of death. Its based on the vitreous humour of the eye of cadavers and, by using this system, scientists makes it possible ti establish the post mortem interval (PMI). This information makes it easier for the police and courts. Scientists analyze potassium, urea, and hypoxantine concentrations that are present in the vitreous humour of the ey and introuduce these things into a computer program. José Ignacio Munoz Barús, who was involved with the study, said that, "the equations we have developed now make it possible for us to estimate the PMI more precisely than before, and provide a useful and accessible tool to forensic pathologists that is easy to use." This new method is more flexible, useful and efficient than those applied in the past. The traditional techniques for estimating the PMI are based on the study of parameters such as the temperature of the organs.This new method offers an important contribution in the field of legal medicine, since determining the time of death has been an issue since the 19th century. 

DNA: Beyond Criminal Justice

Just as a jury can match DNA taken from a crime scene to a suspect’s DNA, scientists can compare strings of DNA to identify the origins of species and relationships among all organisms. Carroll, a professor of genetics and molecular biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, is a star in biology’s firmament. Before tackling Darwinism and its “survival of the fittest” credo, his earlier writings considered the role that genetic hierarchies play in determining why some organisms make it and others die off. This line of inquiry – the combined study of evolution and development – is known as “Evo-Devo,” and has been described as “the arrival of the fittest.”
There’s certainly a whole lot more DNA evidence now than in years past. The quest for the human genome and new science of genomics has explosively expanded DNA databases, which contain the raw code for the makings of all animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. Through comparative DNA studies, says Carroll, scientists can peer back through the mists of time 600 or 700 million years to confirm that the process of natural selection drives diversity. DNA is a window into our ancient past.

Study Of Faulty Fingerprints Debunks Forensic Science 'Zero Error' Claim

Our textbook says that a fingerprint is an example of an individual characteristic, not a class characteristic; however, this is not necessarily the case. A study of faulty fingerprints debunks forensic science “zero error” claim. Recently, an innocent American was accused of being involved with the Madrid train bombing. The man was convicted of the crime based on fingerprint evidence, but later released because of an error. Now, criminologist, Simon Cole is investigating the errors that can occur in regards to fingerprint analysis. According to Cole, as many as a thousand incorrect fingerprint “matches” could be made each year in the United States, despite safeguards intended to prevent errors. Cole believes that the 22 exposed fingerprint errors, are just the “tip of the iceberg.” These errors were only discovered by coincidences, such as a post-conviction DNA test, the intervention of foreign police and even a deadly lab accident that led to the re-evaluation of evidence. Wrongful convictions on the basis of faulty evidence are supposed to be prevented by four safeguards: having print identifications “verified” by additional examiners; ensuring the examiners are competent; requiring a high number of matching points in the ridges before declaring the print a match; and having independent experts examine the prints on behalf of the defendant. Nevertheless, these safeguards have obviously failed in some cases. According to Cole, “Rather than blindly insisting there is zero error in fingerprint matching, we should acknowledge the obvious, study the errors openly and find constructive ways to prevent faulty evidence from being used to convict innocent people.” Through his studies Cole has found the aggregate error rate of fingerprint analysis to be 0.8 percent, which means 1,900 mistaken fingerprint matches made in one year.

Engineers Pioneer New Digital Forensics Technology

Engineers at the University of Maryland’s A James Clark school of engineering have just recently developed a powerful new digital fingerprinting technology in order to protect copyrighted materials from being stolen by “cyber criminals”. This is becoming increasingly important as more and more information is now stored digitally. Professor’s Min Wu and K.J. Ray Lui, have developed this technology that protects information from this new class of criminals. What this technology does, is for every user of the stolen media, a unique ID is attached to that individual, which can later be used to identify persons who contributed to the piracy attack. This ID performs much better than past methods, and it can be linked on audio, video, as well as special documents such as maps. Because of this practical application, theses digital fingerprints will be used by Hollywood movie producers, as well the department of homeland security, in order to trace the unauthorized distribution of sensitive information. In this case, the traitors can be traced through the use of Wu and Lui’s technology. This is a major forensics breakthrough especially as crimes adapt to the digital age that we live in today.

Traumatic events, PTSD, and psychiatric comorbidity in forensic patients – Assessed by Questionnaires and Diagnostic Interview

The present results emphasize, but also suggest further investigation of the consequences of early exposure to traumatic experiences: it remains to be investigated, how personality and PTSD relate to criminal behavior, ultimately leading to a forensic status. Many mental health workers and professionals acknowledge the severe mental disorder (including comorbid depression and anxiety) in forensic patients in treatment and rehabilitation. Early detection of traumatic experiences may be among the prerequisites to prevent the development of trauma-spectrum disorders and its behavioral and clinical consequences.

A New Breakthrough In Time Determination

A Norwegian Professor said that he had developed a device, which is a device that is able to determine the victim’s time of death. He claims that this device can determine the time of death more precisely than it has before. Professor Rognum says that before this device was designed, investigators would use decreasing body temperature and morphological changes in the body. Now, theis new handheld device-the Time Of Death Kit-investigators can increase the accuracy of time of death determination within 36 minutes. Before then, the closest investigators could come to was 90 minutes.
Professor Rognum also said that compared to the 24 hours using temperature sensitive devices, the new method can be used for a period of up to four days. The FBI and Scotland Yard will be testing the TOD (Time Of Death) device, says the Norway Times.

Trent's Current Event

The inventor of a revolutionary new forensic fingerprinting technique claims criminals who eat processed foods are more likely to be discovered by police through their fingerprint sweat corroding metal. Dr John Bond, a researcher at the University of Leicester and scientific support officer at Northamptonshire Police, said processed food fans are more likely to leave tell-tale signs at a crime scene. Dr Bond said: “On the basis that processed foods tend to be high in salt as a preservative, the body needs to excrete excess salt which comes out as sweat through the pores in our fingers. “So the sweaty fingerprint impression you leave when you touch a surface will be high in salt if you eat a lot of processed foods -the higher the salt, the better the corrosion of the metal.” “This would be particularly helpful for terrorist type crimes where the nature of the incident would tend to obliterate forensic evidence. So a sweat mark on a piece of metal or bomb fragment that might be recovered from an incident might be able to provide a clue to the type of person who perpetrated the incident.” “We would describe the study of sweat as a process of intelligent fingerprinting - using the fingerprint to tell us more about the individual rather than a simple identification.”

University of Leicester announces world first forensic technique

http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/23217/University_of_Leicester_announces_world_first_forensic_technique.html

Traditionally 2 types of radiology are used in mass fatality and temporary mortuary investigations -that of fluoroscopy and plain x-ray.These techniques however are time consuming, yield limited information and are a health and safety hazard to those working in the environment due to the use of radiological equipment outside their normal working area. They are also not undertaken at the scene of the incident.As far as we know, for the first time in the world a new radiological system was used recently at a mass fatality investigation. A team of researchers led by Professor Guy Rutty of the University of Leicester Forensic Pathology Unit used a mobile MSCT scanner at the mortuary for the examination of the victims of a vehicle mass fatality incident.This instrument provided superior information in 2 dimensional plain film (AP and lateral) and 3 dimensional multi-slice examination with on-site soft tissue and bony reconstruction. The system proved faster then traditional temporary mortuary radiology yielding greater information related to identification, health and safety, autopsy planning and cause of death.Professor Rutty said: "The demonstration of the ability to utilise mobile MSCT technology under these circumstances may result in a complete rethinking of the type of radiology to be used in temporary mortuaries or mass fatalities scenes. The work presently being undertaken by my research team within the Forensic Pathology Unit at the University of Leicester in this area is hoped to develop new approaches to mass fatality radiological investigation which may be adopted throughout the world." University of Leicester

Cell Phones Distract Drivers

Driving and talking on the phone is a bad combination. Studies show that talking on a cell phone is worse than a talkative passenger. Now if you get caught with a cell phone in your hand while you are driving you get a ticket. So people went to the hands free cell phones. However according to a recent Reuters report on a new study published by the Journal of Experimential Psychology: Applied. Even worse, drivers who use mobile phones are as impaired as those who are legally drunk. The university of Utah launched a series of driving-simulation tests to determine that hands-free gadgets such as a Bluetooth headset are just as distracting as holding a phone to your ear. Talkative passengers are better for the driver because they can point out hazards to you. This goes to show that even if someone uses a bluetooth headset it does not prevent you from getting in harms way. 

Criminals Who East Processed Foods More Likely TO Be Discovered, Through Fingerprint Sweat Corroding Metal.

Can fast food and other processed meals make one's fingerprints more distinct? According the Dr. John Bond from University of Leicester and scientific support officer at Northamptonshire Police, processed foods increase the salt content of an individual's sweat causing their fingerprints to be more corrosive to the objects they touch. 

Processed foods are chalk-full of salt and in order for the body to get rid of all the extra salt it ingests, the body sweats it out through pours on the fingertips. The higher the sweat's salt content is, the more corrosive the sweat is on the object it has come in contact with. Thus as the corrosion increases, it becomes easier for investigators to determine who the fingerprint belongs to because the corrosion makes the fingerprint more distinct.

Not only does sweat help identify the fingerprint of a suspect, but sweat also tells investigators certain lifestyle information, such as the general food habits of the suspect. Sweat is able to provide investigators with information such as this solely based on the salt content of the sweat marks left behind. The varying levels of salt content within the sweat provides the investigators with a general idea of what the suspect eats.

Dr. John Bond hopes to make further breakthroughs in sweat itself in order to profile an individual based only of the information sweat provided the investigators with.

web address: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915210509.htm

Alex's current Event

On sunday afternoon, the Endeavour space shuttle was forced to change it's landing from flordia to California due to bad weather. This shuttle was in space, because they were looking to repair and fix the space station. It consisted of over 7 members of a crew and late last week the members of the crew had to walk on a deadly walk where one of the members almost died. While the trip was deadly lots of information was found. While the landing in California was good, it means that the crew can't see their families, because they were in Flordia. Thsio article was very interestimg, because it talks about a very current event and the issues that occur when a space shuttle has to land in a different location.

Kelly's Current Event

LOS ANGELES - In their cocoons of leather upholstery, soothing high-tech sound systems, and automatically activated personal seat settings, drivers have come to regard their car interiors as mobile extensions of the homes that are their private refuges.

The courts have tended to disagree.
Global positioning systems and factory-installed "black box" event data recorders effectively keep late-model vehicles under surveillance 24/7, providing evidence that can place a suspect at a crime scene, undermine an alibi, expose a cheating spouse, or prove liability in an accident.
Although privacy rights advocates warn that the devices augment an already intrusive network of security cameras, speed-monitoring radars, and instantly available databases, police and prosecutors hail the technologies as powerful investigative and forensic tools.
GPS tracking records introduced at trial put a Yolo County, Calif., man at the scene of arson fires, leading to his conviction in October for setting a dozen blazes in 2006.
A Commerce, Calif., man suspected of robbery was tracked by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department detectives who planted a GPS unit in his car, mapping his movements and using the evidence to convince a jury he was guilty of assault with a deadly weapon.
In murder cases in Illinois, Washington, and California, including the trial of Scott Peterson for killing his wife and unborn son, the technology has been credited with helping establish guilt.
The evidence is sometimes the product of unwitting self-surveillance. GPS units keep positioning tracks that, if not erased, create a record of a person's movements.
Event data recorders are standard equipment in most new cars. They record speed, braking, signaling, and other driving behaviors, and can show investigators vital details about what led to a crash.
Wisconsin attorney David A. Schumann, who did some of the earliest legal analysis of GPS potential, points out its usefulness in tracking suspects, locating victims, and monitoring released convicts.
"There are cases where people have gotten hung by their own GPS, bought for purposes of evading the law only to have it used against them," Schumann said of drug traffickers and migrant smugglers caught with evidence they unknowingly gathered against themselves.
He also recalled the case of a Wisconsin man compelled to plead no contest to felony charges after using a GPS to stalk a former girlfriend.
Corporate owners of car and truck fleets, like rental and delivery companies, legally can track their vehicles and act on employee misconduct detected in the process.
But "Tracks of third parties, or of their property, without their knowledge are probably inadmissible and even illegal unless the tracks are conducted by law enforcement," Schumann said.
Also, in a slap at unauthorized consumer surveillance, state courts in Connecticut and California have struck down rental-car company practices of imposing surcharges based on GPS detection of excessive speeds or prohibited out-of-state travel. California banned such tracking four years ago, but rights advocates remain wary of the expanding surveillance.
"We are always concerned about individuals being tracked without their knowledge or informed consent," said Tori Praul, privacy researcher for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California

New fingerprint technique

One America’s Most Wanted murders case’s is now under the investigation of the Northamptonshire Police, and one of the top forensic scientists and the University of Leicester. A United States detective is to bring the brass shell casings from a doorstep shooting now known ass the Marianne Wilkinson murder case, which is currently on the America’s Most Wanted website.
Detective Tony Roten, from the Crimes Against Persons Section of the North Richland Hills Police in Texas, is the man who will be delivering the casings. Detective Roten is hoping that Dr. John Bond’s new forensic technique will help to solve the murder investigation. Dr. Bond developed this technique at the University of Leicester Forensic Research Centre. Dr. Bond was able to develop a technique that allows scientists to visualize fingerprints even after the print itself has been removed. Bond put together a study that observes the way fingerprints can corrode metal surfaces. This technique can enhance a fingerprint on a shell that has been already fired, to make it look like it did before it was fired.
The Marianne Wilkinson murder case revolves around the killing of a 68 year old woman, who was killed as she answered her door at around 7:30 at night on December 9 or 2007. Police have been investigating whether it was just an instance of mistaken indentity, or if the 68 year old woman was actually the intended target. However so far, the case is still unsolved.

'America's Most Wanted' Murder Case To Be Investigated By Pioneering UK Forensic Scientist

Dr John Bond, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester Forensic Research Centre and Scientific Support Manager at Northamptonshire Police, has created a way to visualize fingerprints even after the fingerprint itself has been removed from a surface. He has also developed a method to detect detailed fingerprints off of metal surfaces that have undergone high heat and explosions. Even more amazingly, Dr Bond recently worked with a US police force to find latent prints on bullets fired almost a decade ago. His technique can also be used to find fingerprints on bombs that have been exploded. It is currently being used in Afghanistan to help find people who set up road-side bombs. With this, Dr. Bond has revolutionized the detection of fingerprints.

Forgotten But Not Gone: How The Brain Re-learns

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology have been able to show that new cell contacts established during a learning process stay put, even when they are no longer required. The reactivation of this temporarily inactivated "stock of contacts" enables a faster learning of things forgotten. To learn something, nerve cells make new connections with each other.  Whenever a special point of contact, called synapse, forms at the end of the appendage, information can be transferred from one cell to the next - and new information is learned. Once the contact breaks down, we forget what we have learned. Everything seems to point to the fact that when we forget, synapses are only disabled, but not physically removed. Many of the appendages that develop between nerve cells are thus maintained and facilitate later relearning. This insight is crucial to our understanding of the fundamental processes of learning and memory. 

Fingerprints Prove to Do More Than Simply Identify

It turns out that fingerprints can now be used not only to determine someone’s identity, but also what materials the individual had recently been holding. Scientists are able to use a program that provides an image of the chemical structure of the fingerprint, a characteristic that is extremely specific to each fingerprint. This is useful in a crime scene because it can serve as evidence that a suspect had touched the possible weapon used.

Furthermore, forensic scientists have developed a new method of fingerprint analysis that allows them to separate multiple fingerprints that overlap. Demian R. Ifa explains, "By looking for compounds we know to be present in a certain fingerprint, we can separate it from the others and obtain a crystal clear image of that fingerprint. The image could then be used with fingerprint recognition software to identify an individual." The process uses mass spectrometry, a technique that turns molecules into ions so that their masses can then be analyzed. They spray a stream of water in the presence of electrical fields, creating positively charged water droplets. These water droplets are then put onto the material being tested and the ion is transferred to the sample.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080807144246.htm

Video Enhancement of Facial Images

The article I read had to do with new forensic technology which enables investigators to better determine an individual's identity by viewing video surveillance recordings.  Prior to new technology, it was often very difficult to determine an exact identity from security cameras, as they are often in black and white, and very fuzzy.  However, currently they are able to use Adobe Photoshop to make images clearer, and forensic artists can use the light and dark spots on the face in the recordings to determine actual features.  Facial anatomy awareness, as well as computer programs, can be used to make surveillance recordings more accurate.  Most computer programs are available for medium- and large-sized police task forces, and even some small criminal investigation offices.  When used in collaboration with artists who understand light and dark, as well as facial anatomy, suspect sketches may be composed from video recordings that were previously thought to be useless.

Study Finds ADHD Affects Motor Skills of Boys More Than Girls

New research shows that ADHA affects boys’ motor skills more than girls. Examining age-related improvement of motor skills in children with and without ADHD, researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute found that girls with ADHD and their typically developing peers were more likely to be able to control their movements compared to boys with ADHD. MRI studies shows that boys with ADHD have decreased activities in the brain. E. Mark Mahone, Ph.D., ABPP said that "These findings suggest that sex-related differences in children with ADHD extend beyond symptom presentation to development of motor control". The female brain matures earlier than the male brain.

http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/41340/Study_Finds_ADHD_Affects_Motor_Skills_of_Boys_More_Than_Girls.html

WORLD BRIEFING | ASIA; Thailand: Powerful Gas Used In Protests, Study Finds

Over the past few days, a handful of Thai anti-government protestors have died from unexplained, sudden causes. Numerous more have experienced their limbs and feet exploding. Studies by forensics experts and a human rights commission confirmed that a police squad had intentionally used three types of tear gas (American, Spanish, and Chinese), in order to subsidize the crowd during the protest. However, Pornthip Rojanasand, director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, insists that the police relied heavily on the tear gas made from China. Tests proved that the Chinese tear gas contained high levels of RDX, an explosive commonly used in bombs, and powerfully enough to rip craters in the ground. Diagnoticians are now trying to aid the wounded and exposed protestors to remove the RDX from their systems, but remain unsure whether they will be successful.

http://query.nytimes.co/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06EFD8143AF937A25753C1A96E9C8B63&scp=4&sq=Forensics&st=nyt

Forensic breakthrough takes top prize

Auckland University PhD student Claire French has recently discovered a new forensics technique that could potentially help solve sex crimes. What she discovered was a method of identifying whether cell samples collected for DNA testing come from the skin, the mouth or the vagina. Currently, DNA from such cells found at a crime scene can link a person to the crime but cannot provide evidence about which part of the body the cells came from. The technique, involves staining epithelial cells to reveal different colours, providing an indicator of the cells' origins. Police national forensic services adviser, Inspector John Walker, commented on her discovery calling it groundbreaking, "It's not uncommon in a case of sexual violation to have a situation where the prosecution alleges one set of circumstances and the defence another. Being able to isolate exactly where the body fluids found have come from will remove doubt."

Claire was recently named the 2006 MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year, New Zealand's top award for emerging scientists. Her research has already been presented at international conferences in Hong Kong and Australia and she is due to present her findings to leading forensic scientists at the influential European Academy of Forensic Sciences conference in Helsinki next week. Miss French hopes her research will be developed into a commercial kit used routinely at crime scenes and forensic laboratories. Her win entitles her to a trip to the UK in September to attend the British Association's annual Science Festival, which draws 400 of the world's top scientists and science communicators. She also receives the gold MacDiarmid medal. She has a year left in her doctorate in anatomy, and hopes to continue in the field of forensic science

Children's ability to describe past event develops over time

Recently scientist have come foward with the results of a study which tested a child's memory of events. This surveying of the 250 sexually abused children ages 4-10 that participated in the study helps scientists try to figure out how credible their testimony is when on the witness stand or describing a crime that actually happened to them over time. They found that by the time the younger victims reached the age of ten they could begin to elaborate on the specific times, dates, and events of their abuse. This increase in detail as they aged may be attributed to the children's developing capability to elaborate. The older children in the study could focus on specific times and dates while the younger children could only give loose time frames like "after I got home from school", though this was able to become more specific as they matured and began to fine tune their memory of the crime. This has provided much insight into the credibility of children when testifying, and researchers have found that there will be more success if the children are allowed to be prompted by questions about the time and date and sequence of events, and that the child's ability to recall specific dates and times should do little to discredit the victim's reliability, rather they are just not as developmentally able to recall such facts.



http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/31707/Childrens_ability_to_describe_past_event_develops_over_time.html

Criminals Who Eat Processed Foods More Likely To Be Discovered, Through Fingerprint Sweat Corroding Metal

A researcher at the University of Leicester and scientific support officer at Northamptonshire Police, by the name of Dr. John Bond, stated that people who enjoy processed foods are most likely going to be incapable of hiding evidence they leave behind at a crime scene due to the fact that fingerprint marks will be more visible because they have high salt levels in their body. He said that a person with a high salt content is more likely to sweat and as a result would leave a stronger and more visible fingerprint on metal. He was able to create a method that allowed scientists to see fingerprint marks even after they were removed. He and his colleagues brought about a study to show that fingerprints can abrade on  metal surfaces. People with high salt levels will sweat more because the body must get rid of excess salt. When salt leaves our body it comes out as sweat through the pores in our fingers. The more salt, the better abrasion on a piece of metal. Therefore, the chances of finding someone in a crime are higher in a person who has high salt concentration. 

Babies placed in incubators decrease risk of depression as adults

I found this article to be very interesting, I clicked on the headline immediatley. Babies who receive incubator care after they are born are less likely to suffer depression as adults according to a new study. This discovery was made by scientists from a hosptial research center in the U.K. The logic is that separation between mother and child after birth is considered a major stressor that can cause problems in adulthood. The mother baby separation could heighten depression in adulthood, so the incubator care could obvoiusly decrease the risk of depression in two out of three cases by the age of 21. Incubators are controlled environments where all senses of the human body are adjusted to maximize neuronal development. "We believe that incubator care is a trigger for a complex chain of biological and emotional factors that helped decrease depression." said the doctor at the University of Montreal. I cannot wait to see how this plays out in the future and am looking forward to seeing more results.

New Field Of Research Could Help Police In Crime Scene Forensics

Scientists at the Translational Genomics Research Institute have developed a way to identify suspects at crime scenes when there is only a small amount of DNA, or even if the individual’s DNA is mixed with hundreds of other people’s DNA. They were able to identify an individuals DNA even if it was only .1 percent of the total amount of DNA using genotyping microarrays. They successfully identified the DNA even when it was among more than 200 individual samples. This could be very useful for investigators, which will help them better identify possible suspects; even if there have been many people at the crime scene. It may also be useful in the reprocessing of evidence from previous crime scenes. It would also be extremely useful since a lot of DNA evidence is made useless due to contamination, and this would enable the investigators to use the specific DNA and disregard other samples in the mix.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080828220505.htm

Forensic DNA SNP Analysis

Forensic genetics is the branch of genetics that, through DNA analysis and comparison, deals with the resolution of legal problems such as paternity tests. Recently, it has been proposed that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) could be used as a new genetic marker in the field eventually even replacing the methods/markers now employed. But in an article just published online in Forensic Science International, a team of scientists challenges the effectiveness of SNPs in kinship studies predicting an increase in inconclusive cases when these markers are used.

In forensic genetics, DNA samples are analysed through the comparison of particular DNA sequences unique to each individual. In fact, although more than 99% of the genome is the same across the human population, variations in DNA sequence called polymorphisms can be used to both differentiate and correlate individuals.
Short Tandem Repeats (STRs) are the genetic markers most commonly used in this moment by forensic scientists. STRs consist of repetitive segments of DNA two to five nucleotides (DNA building blocks) length found throughout the genome with different individuals having different STRs combinations.

Recently however, another type of genetic marker called SPNs (single nucleotide polymorphisms), which consists in DNA sequence variations that result from alterations in a single nucleotide in the genome sequence, has been considered to replace STRs in forensic investigations. SNPs seem to have several advantages over STRs as not only they are a more stable genetic marker and so are less likely to be lost across generations which is crucial in paternity cases, but they are also cheaper, easier and faster to examine and need much smaller DNA samples.

But now Antonio Amorim and Luisa Pereira at IPATIMUP (Institute of Pathology and Molecular Immunology, Porto University, Portugal) and the Faculty of Sciences of the same university show that SNPs analysis can also have some problems. In fact, the two scientists used statistic simulations to compare STRs and SNPs effectiveness in kinship studies and reached the unexpected conclusion that the possibility of inconclusive results is much higher when using SNPs. Amorim and Pereira's work question the validity of SNP polymorphisms sole use in routine paternity investigations and raise the need for a proper assessment of this technique before any decisions are make.

SANS Announces New Resources for Computer Forensics and e-Discovery Professionals: http://forensics.sans.org

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/SANS-Announces-New-Resources-Computer/story.aspx?guid={F715B8ED-B252-44DA-BEE8-28A06747A943}

The SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) University developed a new website recently that was targeted at forensic training. The website uses verious training methods to instruct future and current forensic compputer analysists prospects in the methods of analysis and and which crimes to look outfor. The site provides a community-focused environment, and "offering a one-stop resource to learn, discuss, and share current developments in the field of digital forensics." Some of the various crimes detailed on the site are: "fraud, intrusion, insider threats, phishing, and other cyber-crimes." The site is equipped with a team of GIAC Certified Forensic Analysists (GCFA), who provide insights to those who participate in learning from the site. The site also provides a long "list of blogs, podcasts, and other forensics focused resources." The SANS Univeristy's many innovations and resources provide it with the the most trusted seal of foresic computer analysists.

Criminals who eat processed foods more likely to be discovered, through fingerprint sweat corroding metal

Dr. John Bond discovered that sweaty fingerprint marks made more of a corrosive impression on metal if they had a high salt content. The impressions left enables scientists to 'visualize fingerprints' even after the print had been removed. Fingerprints deposited on a small calibre cartridge case before firing, are magnified/enhanced. Dr. Bond said, "on the basis that processed foods tend to be high in salt as a preservative, the body needs to excrete excess salt which comes out as sweat through the pores in fingers. So the sweaty fingerprint impression you leave when you touch a surface will be high in salt if you eat a lot of processed foods-the higher the salt, the better the corrosion of the metal. Dr. Bond is currently working on a means of identifying people through sweat marks. He doesn't believe it will replace fingerprints but only give the police something to start with if there is no other forensic evidence. He believes it could be used in crimes where the nature of the incident tends to destroy all evidence, such as a bomb explosion. He believes that a sweat mark on a piece of metal or a bomb fragment could provide a clue to the type of person who perpetrated the act

Researchers find new forensic tools to ID missing soldiers' remains

Hundreds of researchers at two military laboratories analyze bone fragments to reveal the names of skeletons of missing soldiers dating back to the civil war. Forensic anthropologists are using methods ranging from DNA to comparing bones to X-rays. 12,000 family members of 7600 service members missing from the civil war to the cold war have given DNA samples, but due to a lack of full participation by families the researchers are struggling to make matches. They are comparing the specific types of DNA, such as Y-DNA, which is paternally inherited, and mitochondrial DNA, which is maternally inherited. Mitochondrial DNA is the most reliable because it can be compared to other relatives and it does not deteriorate as quickly as nuclear or Y-DNA. They have been extracting DNA from items ranging from watches to old stamps to hearing aids. In cases where remains were stored in formaldehyde (which destroys DNA) they are using a process known as demineralization to undo some of the damage to find the DNA. They have also compared skulls to old photographs and bones to chest x-rays and dental records. In addition these researchers contributed in identifying remains in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and identifying remains of bodies in Southeast Asia after the 2004 Tsunami

New detergent washes away stains of murder: study

Yesterday Spanish researchers stated that new generation cleaning products could potential help criminals get away with murder by making bloodstains invisible to forensic tests. A team at the university of Valencia discovered that new washing powders and other chemicals that generate oxygen, rather than use chlorine,  erase telltale traces of hemoglobin, which is the protein in the blood that transports oxygen throughout the body. Up to now forensic scientists could identify blood using a mixture of chemicals to unmask the stains, even after ten washes. The new detergents, like Reckitt Benckiser's 'Vanish', contain the active ingredient sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate which produces a fizz of oxygen that degrades the blood even though it may still be visible to the eye. The same team that discovered this is now working to see if the oxygen producing chemicals also destroys DNA

Forensics Breakthrough could stop major art fraud-

Until now there was always a risk that you were being sold a clever forgery, but a new forensic test developed by Western Australian chemists, Emma Bartle and Professor John Waltling, has created what looks like a foolproof system for authenticating such antique porcelain. The test could also open a new door on Australians early maritime history including the controversial theory that an ancient imperial fleet of Chinese junks visited the country 250 years before ht arrival of Captain Cook.

Forensics: Fingerprints can be recovered from fired bullet casings-

Science has developed a technique for retrieving fingerprints from bullet casings and bomb fragments after they have been fired and detonated. The new method, which relies on subtle corrosion of metal surfaces, is already being applied for the first time anywhere in the world by two British police forces. The patterns of corrosion remained after the surface has been cleaned, heated to 600C or even painted over. This means that traces of fingerprints stay on the metal long after the residue from a persons finger has gone.

Forensic Breakthrough on text messages-

New techniques that may soon be used in court are text messaging. This technique can also be used from emails, chat rooms conversations and other electronic messages. This is used so that they can determine the like hood that two messages were written by the same person. Dr. Grant analyzed the characteristic abbreviations used in the messages. In the phone of a girl that was murdered Jenny Nicholl she used, “I am” and “myself”. The text messages sent to her phone after the appearance contained “im” and “meself,” which were similar to what was said in David Hodgsons phone with convicted him of murder.

Women Have More Diverse Hand Bacteria Than Men

University of Colorado at boulder study indicates that not only do human hads carry far higher numbers of bacteria species than previously believed, woman have a significantly greater diversity of microbes on theur palms than men.Using powerful gene sequencing techniques, the team found a typical hand in the new study had roughly 150 different species of bacteria living on it, said Fierer of CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department. While the researchers detected and identified more than 4,700 different bacteria species across 102 human hands in the study, only five species were shared among all 51 participants.

Knight recently received a $1.1 million NIH grant to develop new computational tools to better understand the composition and dynamics of microbial communities. He has been developing novel methods to tag DNA samples with error-correcting "barcodes" to obtain more accurate sequencing data.

I personally found it very interesting to find out form this article that woman have more hand bacteria than man. This is all due to the advance of technological devices we have encountered, especially in the scientific field.

DART - Direct Analysis in Real Time

http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/31633/New_ink_sampling_technique_taking_a_bite_of_out_time.html

A new breakthrough has been made for forensic science when they made a new library in Iowa. They are building a library that has ink profiles that will make testing documents and inks a much easier process. A new process is being made called DART (Direct Analysis in Real Time). This helps find the composition of ink easier and faster than normal and produces an answer just as efficient as any other process in the past. The process includes pointing a hot steam of helium or nitrogen atoms at the ink. By doing this it evaporates the ink and the this evaporated ink goes through a mass spectrometer to find the composition of the ink easily. This process is more effective and quicker, but it also doesn't destroy the look of the evidence. It leaves the look of evidence but gets the results so the forensic studies can go on quicker and they wont get side tracked trying to find the composition of the ink.

"Fingerprint Breakthrough Could Solve Cold Cases"

http://crime.about.com/od/forensics/a/metal_prints.htm

As advances continue to progress in the field of forensic science, just recently British forensic scientists have developed a new fingerprinting technique in which prints can be identified from metal objects even if they have been washed away with water or soap. With this new technique, scientists are able to obtain fingerprints on metal objects ranging from small shell casings to large machine guns. The process consists of applying an electric charge to a metal, such as a gun, that has been coated in a fine conducting powder. As the charge is applied, the small corrosion left on the metal by fingerprints attracts the powder that ultimately reveals the appearance of the fingerprint. This procedure is made easier from the heat produced by the gun as the shot was fired. This method is particularly good for identifying suspects through examining metallic evidence for even if the criminal washes the gun with soap and water, the slight corrosion made by the fingerprint remain and can now be exposed. As the scientific support manager for the Northamptonshire Police, Dr. Bond suggests that this new technology will lead to a serious of numerous past case re-openings to further evaluate the physical evidence of metallic objects that may contain corrosion points and reveal the truth in the court room.

Cyber Forensics - Digital Fingerprints to Protect Multimedia

Researchers at University of Maryland's engineering school have come up with a new innovative digital fingerprinting technology. It could be important for helping keep safe Hollywood's assets and identify national security leak, without impinging on legitimate uses. It is really important to keep safe digital and electronic information because its becoming increasingly used, and keeping it safe is extremely difficult.

This new technology is able to track down "cyber criminals" who have been infringing on personal online information and engaging in multimedia piracy. This new idea of "cyber forensics" will protect digital resources, and track whoever is trying to steal them or get a hold of them. This will protect against many crimes.

The "digital fingerprinting" is just saying that they can use codes to figure out who is trying to obtain what information or what they are trying to steal, and they will keep a record of this person, or people, that is involved. This system can accommodate millions of users and protect videos, images, audio, special documents (i.e. maps), and even things like pay per view.

It is believed that, these new advances in digital resourced will protect against piracy happening in the future.

Intern cracks cold murder case ... after 36 years

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27335906/October 23,2008
Austin Galloway

After 36 years of despair, the family of Gerald “Jerry” Jackson finally learned who had brutally murdered the Vietnam vet in his apartment in California. Thanks to an enterprising intern at the San Diego Police Department, the closure they have waited for so long appears to be finally at hand.
The suspected killer, 60-year-old Gerald Metcalf, was arrested last week in Texas and is awaiting extradition to San Diego to stand trial. The person responsible for cracking the case is Gabrielle Wimer, a 24-year-old criminal-justice major who looks forward to a career in crime scene investigation.
Jerry Jackson was a Vietnam vet and postal worker who worked part-time at a bar. He was last seen at work at the bar on Dec. 28, 1971. When he didn’t show for his postal job, co-workers called police, who found his body in his apartment on Jan. 2, 1972. He had been stabbed 50 times and his apartment had been ransacked. Fingerprints were recovered, but there was no database to submit the prints at that time. Wimer simply resubmitted the prints to the now extensive database and they matched Metcalf.
There are many other cases that could be solved by reopening preserved evidence and using technology now that was not previously available.

Alcohol's Affect on Brain Volume

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081013171421.htm

A new study has been released showing that the more alcohol an individual drinks, the smaller his or her total brain volume. Brain volume already decreased by about 1.9% every 10 years, but the study suggests high alcohol consumption only compounds this effect. Lower brain volumes are also associated with higher risk of dementia and problems with learning and thinking. Scientists theorized that since moderate alcohol consumption has an effect on the risk of cardiovascular disease it may also effect the brain volume. The study which was conducted on 1839 adults began in 1971. Although men in the study were more likely to drink more alcohol, women had a higher association between alcohol consumption and brain volume decrease.This could be due to biological factors, including women's smaller size and greater susceptibility to alcohol's effects. "The public health effect of this study gives a clear message about the possible dangers of drinking alcohol," the authors write. The ultimate conclusion was that although moderate alchohol consumption may help the heart it has no known protective effects over the brain.

Tiny Tags Could Help Solve and Deter Gun Crime

New bullet tagging technology now makes it harder for criminals who use firearms. Nanotags, which are only 30 microns in diameter and invisible to the naked eye, are designed to be coated onto gun cartridges and attach themselves to the hands of the person handling the cartridge. This means that a link between the cartridge fired during the crime and the person who handled it. 

This new technology can lead to a major increase in successful convictions. The tags are made up of a number of oxides to enable a connection between the cartridge and its user. The technology is designed so the DNA is not damaged in any way and it is also inexpensive.

This breakthrough was achieved by a team of engineers, chemists, scientist, and nanotechnologists from Brighten, Brunel, and York Universities.

The tagging be available for use in less than a year and scientists are trying to apply the tagging to other fields, such as knife crime. 

Federal Funding to Ease DNA analysis Backlog

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/us/25dna.html

Local and state law agencies have been making moves to reduce nationwide backlog on cases waiting for DNA analysis. The federal government has made efforts by them giving $500 million grants to laboratories throughout the country. Many of these cases are from rape and assault cases. These cases that are on backlog for testing are letting possibly thousands of criminal offenders unpunished on the loose and maybe committing new crimes. Each DNA sample costs about $1,500 to be analyzed and that is for the 700 cases that are backlogged. This also brings up many cases in which the attackers or rapists continue to commit the crimes that they are being tested for. As the cases are backlogged in the programs, the offender went on to rape two other women one being a seventeen-year-old girl and sexually assaulted them both. Progress is trying to be made on the backlogging of DNA analysis cases but not much has really happened as of now.

Genetic Testing Anywhere: Micro-sizes Hand-held 'Lab-on-a-chip' Devices Under Development

“Genetic Testing Anywhere: Micro-sizes Hand-held 'Lab-on-a-chip' Devices Under Development” -ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2008)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080919183815.htm

Last month, Mr. Landers, a professor of chemistry and mechanical engineering and associate professor of pathology at the University of Virginia published his research on a new lab on a chip technology. He is trying to create a hand-held device that can allow physicians, crime scene investigators, pharmacists, even the general public, to quickly and inexpensively conduct DNA tests from almost anywhere, without need for a complex and expensive central laboratory. "We are simplifying and miniaturizing the analytical processes so we can do this work in the field, away from traditional laboratories, with very fast analysis times, and at a greatly reduced cost," he said. The hand-held device would hold many analytical tools found in a lab, but it would be portable. For example, the unit would be able to test a pin-prick-size droplet of blood, and within an hour provide a DNA analysis. This would be useful to crime scene investigators who could collect and analyze even a tiny sample of blood or semen on the scene, enter the finding into a genetic database, and possibly identify the perpetrator very shortly after a crime has occurred.

The Molly Justice Murder

In Victoria, investigators are reopening one of Canada’s most famous cold cases. In 1943, Molly Justice, a 15 year old seamstress, was murdered at Swan Lake. Today, the only evidence that remains is a box filled letters, notebooks, an unidentified knife, and three leather gloves. In 1943, investigators concluded that Molly had been beaten and stabbed, but there were no signs of sexual assault. Her death was investigated for three months. Frank Hulbert, a 15 year old boy, was arrested after threatening another young girl at Swan Lake. Hulbert managed to convince the Canadian police that he was not guilty of the murder and blamed William Mitchell, a worker at the local paint factory. Mitchell had an alibi and it became clearer and clearer that Hulbert was the murderer. For years, Hulbert was able to avoid any sentence because of a lack of evidence. In the end, he was let off with perjury charges only. To this day, people still question whether Hulbert was guilty of Molly's murder or not. In present-day, police might have been able to provide a more definitive answer to Molly's death, given advances in forensic techniques. Hair that was apparently found underneath Molly's fingernails could have been analyzed to obtain a DNA profile. A fingerprint recovered from the contents of her discarded purse could have been run through a databank system for a possible match. But both those pieces of evidence have been lost to history “If we could locate the exhibits that I know of, which are limited to the print and the hair, then yes, modern technology could assist us there,” added Saanich Inspector Rob McColl. Currently, forensic scientists are working to find scraps of evidence in order to solve the 65 year old mystery.

Local Vietnam flier's remains found, identified

"Local Vietnam flier's remains found, identified" - Journal News Review Press

Earlier this month, the remains of Capt. Gomer David Reese, were discovered in Laos by a search team from The Department of Defense. Capt. Reese was a Air Force pilot who was involved in covert missions over Laos during the vietnam war, when he was shot down in 1970. But just recently, during their sixth search since the end of the war, military investigators located the remains of the two missing pilots who were shot down 38 years ago. The remains along with a belt buckle and other items linked to the crash were positively identified by personnel at the military's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. The method that was used in identifying Capt. Resse's remains was through dental records. This is a significant discovery, considering the length of time since this this Scarsdale native went missing in action(MIA).

This article brings to our attention, the great effort of the military and the Joint POW/MIA search efforts, that have successfully uncovered the story's of two more unfortunate soldiers, with the help of forensic science. These discovery's are very important to the families of the soldiers, who have been left in the dark all these years. Resse's sister, Nancy Palazzo, said that "I didn't realize how meaningful it still is, that he's been found and will come how."In April, which will be the anniversary of the crash, Resse will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

I thought this was a good article, that incorporated forensic science, with an inspiring story about a long lost 'hero'. It was interesting to see how the use of dental records could be used to identify the remains of a body that has been in the jungle for almost 4 decades. What is even more intersting is the fact that these highly decayed remains were even located. The article could have gone into more detail involving the science and tactics behind finding and identifying the remains, but over it was well done.

processed food makes a fingerprint come up more clearly

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915210509.htm

Dr. John Bond is a scientific support officer at Northamptonshire Police, and a researcher at the University of Leicester. Dr. Bond recently discovered that processed food makes a fingerprint come up more clearly. Dr. Bond described in a conference at the University of Leicester that when a criminal has eaten food that has a high salt content, their fingerprints make more of an impression. He said these clearer fingerprints will help to tell more about the person who left the mark. Bond has discovered this new method which allows scientists to ‘visualise fingerprints’.

The idea is that the fingerprints on a metal bullet shell appear more clearly when a sweaty finger touches it. Even after the bullet has been fired, this technique will make it easier for the scientists to analyze the prints. Dr Bond said, “On the basis that processed foods tend to be high in salt as a preservative, the body needs to excrete excess salt which comes out as sweat through the pores in our fingers. Dr. Bond and a group of scientists are now working on creating a scope that can detect the sweat itself, which could allow them to identify the type of person who left the sweat. This new process of studying the fingerprints on bullet shells isn't the best way to determine who committed the crime, but it is something for the police to use when they've got nothing else. The fingerprint would allow scientists to determine more about the type of person who committed the crime, but not actually be able to identify the single person.

Forensics anthropologists have created life size images of George Washington

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2005/0912-changing_the_face_of_history.htm



Forensics anthropologists have created life size images of George Washington resembling what he would really look like in person. They are doing this by processing images of Washington with mathbased computer software and 3D laser scans. Forensics pathologist Jeffrey H. Schwartz at the University of Pittsburgh has stressed the importance to do as much reconstruction of the older Washington as possible so that he can apply general rules of aging and then reversing the sequence to show a younger George Washington. Pathologists say that Washington was a lot stronger than he is depicted as being, the Executive director of the Historic Mount Vernon in Mount Vernon, Virginia James C. Rees says that if they can show Washington as the strong adventurous man he was, kids would be more willing to learn about our first president.

Editor's Letter: Forensic Tools

Throughout the field of forensic science it seems that DNA is the "magic bullet". DNA is what everyone assumes is the main and most helpful way in solving pretty much any type of crime. DNA isn't always the "magic bullet". DNA has to be handled by a forensic scientist who knows what they are doing. If an inexperienced person is handling the DNA they could ruin all of its importance. Someone who is highly experienced and knows how to do the proper collection, analysis, reporting, and the chain of custody. Something has small as an investigator using contaminated gloves while handling DNA could destroy the DNA sample and make it useless to help solving the case.
DNA isn't the only tool that investigators use to help solve crimes. These high quality tools consist of scanning and imaging, and collection tools to gather evidence. High Tech vehicles come to certain crime scenes which carry certain evidence analysis's so that they can start being evaluated at the crime scene. Dick Warrington says that the basic and necessary crime scene evidence collection tools are tape, bags, powder, brushes, gloves, swabs, markers, scales, and lighting.
All of these things won't help assist solving a crime unless the evidence is collected and handled by highly trained professionals. If not there could be serious contamination and damaged to the evidence which would lead to investigators in a different track then they want. Solving a crime is simple as long as their is good evidence along with highly trained investigators and the right evidence collection tools.

http://www.forensicmag.com/articles.asp?pid=236

Technology to track criminals will expand

Over the past 5 years the technologies used to track and control prisoners on probation have sky rocketed. The newest and most successful new piece of technology in the Probation Department is the anklet GPS. The anklet tells the history of where the prisoner has been and where he or she is at any moment. In addition the anklet tells the Probation Department the exact time the prisoner was at a specific location. 

Another perk to these new pieces of technology is that the prisoner is responsible for paying the price of the anklet and if they fail to do so, they will remain in jail. This method of financing the project prevents the taxpayers from loosing money.

In addition to new GPS anklets, the Total Court Services has just came out with alcohol monitoring anklets that regester the amount of alcohol is present in ones sweat. Anklets such as this are used to prevent DUI, abuse, and any other alcohol related crimes. Information on the prisoner's sweat level must then be uploaded onto a computer and sent to a agency called SCRAM that monitors the individuals blood alcohol level.

However, for people such as sex offenders, the Probation Department uses technologies such as cameras and other monitoring systems to strategically watch their house, office, or any other place of frequent use. The new technology of satellite tracking is also a very successful tool used by the Probation department to track sex offenders.

Thanks to new technologies such as these anklets, many of the 780 gangs in San Bernardino County are being monitored and the violence caused by gang activity has drastically declined. In addition, over 1,500 warrants have been set up for prisoners who did not follow the judges orders and became fugitives because all there actions were documented from their anklets.

Link: http://www.sbsun.com/ci_10708585

A New Breakthrough In Time Determination

A Norwegian Professor said that he had developed a device, which is a device that is able to determine the victim’s time of death. He claims that this device can determine the time of death more precisely than it has before. Professor Rognum says that before this device was designed, investigators would use decreasing body temperature and morphological changes in the body. Now, theis new handheld device-the Time Of Death Kit-investigators can increase the accuracy of time of death determination within 36 minutes. Before then, the closest investigators could come to was 90 minutes.
Professor Rognum also said that compared to the 24 hours using temperature sensitive devices, the new method can be used for a period of up to four days. The FBI and Scotland Yard will be testing the TOD (Time Of Death) device, says the Norway Times.

Use of Trained Dogs to Locate Human Remains

Link : http://www.forensicmag.com/articles.asp?pid=231

A common problem in death investigation is the finding and identification of objects and places associated with either the commission of an incident or the actual location of a decedent's body. Weapons are often disposed of in natural areas: objects, clothing, and vehicles may be cleaned in an attempt to remove evidence of blood and tissue; bodies are buried in remote areas or with associated efforts to conceal burial. Once an object or place is located, standard criminalistic, archeological, and forensic investigative methods can be used to make the victim, perpetrator, or object linking.
Various methods are utilized to locate an object of interest such as searching an area with trained dogs. In this article it is apparent that the use of specially trained canines for the location of human remains and objects of forensic interest. Forensics uses a canine that has been specifically trained to indicate a scent source as being from decomposed human tissue. Latimer believes canine forensics will continue to build on its reputation within the scientific and legal communities.
“But that will only happen if we work on improving the profession and policing ourselves rather than waiting for legal decisions in big cases to dictate the way we do things,” he said. “If we are proactive enough, many of the legal challenges can be avoided.”

New ink sampling technique taking a bite of out time

James 10/7/08
Current Event – Forensics

New ink sampling technique taking a bite of out time
July 18, 2007
Ames, Iowa –

In this article researchers at the Midwest Forensics Resource Center at Iowa State University are building a library of ink profiles to help forensic scientists identify inks on fraudulent documents and other evidence. In this process scientists will pair mass spectrometry with new sampling technique called “Direct Analysis with real time (DART). This process will reveal the chemical make up of ink faster. This will show a greater detail than we have seen before.

The process goes like this DART mass spectrometry analyzes ink by creating a stream of warm gas containing excited-state helium atoms or nitrogen molecules in the DART source. The gas stream is pointed at an ink sample, and the gas and excited-state species evaporate and ionize the molecules from the sample. A mass spectrometer measures the production of ions to create mass spectrum data from each ink sample tested. Unlike other ink analysis liquid chromatography only requires a small sample from the document and does not alter them physically or visually. The great thing about the DART system is that it can take a sample of the ink straight off the paper. You don’t have to extract the sample first. Before this process we had to cut a little bit of sample out and dissolve it in solvent for analysis. In essence we don’t destroy the evidence. The great thing about this if we don’t alter or destroy the evidence, it will hold up in court in order to indict the criminal every time. Also, with this process we can analysis more cases in a shorter period of time. Prior to DART scientists could not even do the ink sample tests because of the caseloads were so large.

Jones and John McClelland, Ames Laboratory senior physicist and DART project leader plan a three phase project. The first phase is to create and determine the best way to make inks and build the library. The second phase was ink mass spectra to produce. The third phase is make a project to focus on creating a computer software, always used to store and access the mass spectra library.

Text Crimes, Sex Crimes, and Murder

Text Crimes, Sex Crimes, and Murder

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080908073841.htm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 8, 2008) — Text and instant messaging may soon cease to be an anonymous method of communication as advances in forensic linguistic research make it possible to identify the sender and also predict the gender and age of the author with some degree of success.

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At the BA Festival of Science in Liverpool on September 8, Dr Tim Grant, the Deputy Director of the Centre for Forensic Linguistics at Aston University, will describe how language analysis is increasingly playing a key part during police investigations and court cases to help identify the author of incriminating material, whether it be a threatening note, documents planning a terrorist attack or a sexually explicit chat room conversation involving an adult and a child.

He believes that, despite public concerns about the growth of a surveillance society, the ability to identify authorship of electronic communications is beneficial.

Linguistic evidence demonstrating who sent a particular text message has been significant in a growing number of cases where criminals have attempted to use them as alibis. These include difficult murder cases where victims’ bodies were never found, such as the recent prosecution of David Hodgson, who was convicted in February of the murder of his ex-lover Jenny Nicholl. Her body has never been found.

Dr Grant explains: ‘Jenny Nicholl disappeared on 30th June 2005. A linguistic analysis showed that text messages sent from her phone were unlikely to have been written by her but, rather, were more likely to have been written by her ex-lover, David Hodgson. A number of stylistic points identified within texts known to have been written by Jenny Nicholl were not present in the suspect messages. Instead, these were stylistically close to the undisputed messages of David Hodgson.

Hodgson was convicted partly because, in text messages he sent on her phone after she disappeared, he spelled "myself" as "meself". In her own text messages, Nicholl had spelled the word "myself".

‘The kind of features we were interested in were the shortening of “im” in the texts from Nicholl contrasting with “I am” in the suspect messages and the lack of space after the digit substitution in items such as “go2shop” contrasting with “ave 2 go”’.

Dr Grant has put together a database of more than 7000 texts as part of his research into text messaging style and variation between individuals and groups of individuals. The public can contribute to his ongoing research by submitting text samples to http://www.forensiclinguistics.net/texting. His study seeks to establish base rate information for certain features in texting language, and will also highlight how groups of people who text one another frequently grow more similar in their texting style.

Based on techniques that were first used to measure similarity between marine ecosystems, and then applied to the analysis of sexual crime, Dr Grant has now developed a method to quantify people’s style of text writing. His technique, which assigns a numeric measure of stylistic difference between any two texts, encourages the move from expert opinion based evidence to more methodologically rigorous and empirically tested techniques.

‘Forensic linguistics is a relatively new forensic science but the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners opens a linguistic subregister this month and this will give easy access to reputable practitioners and help cement its position as a key forensic science,’ said Dr Grant.

‘In addition to this formal recognition we are seeing an expansion in casework, particularly in the area of electronic communication – SMS, IRC (internet relay chat) and email. In these kinds of communication it is relatively easy to be, or at least feel, anonymous – new technologies have created an anti-social phenomenon of mass anonymity, and the ability to identify the writer can only be beneficial for society.’

Dr Grant will be presenting this material in his talk at the BA Festival of Science, ‘The BA Joseph Lister Award Lecture – Txt crimes, sex crimes and murder: the science of forensic linguistics’.

Sweat Profiling

Dr. John Bond, a scientist & researcher at the University of Leicester claims that he has found evidence to support his theory that: criminals who eat processed foods are now more likely to be caught by the authorities due to his new discovery. He explains how eating processed foods can result in leaving significantly more traceable evidence at the scene of the crime. At a conference at the University, Dr. Bond explained that fingerprint marks made more of a corrosive impression on metal if they had a higher salt content.

With this new discovery Dr. Bond later talked of his idea of creating a new type of profile, the "Sweat Profile". It states that he and his fellow colleges are still in the process of discussing it, but this new profile could lead to even more evidence that could potentially lead to identifying a criminal.

His research showed that his technique can reveal the marks of a finger print long after the actual print was whiped away. For example, Dr. Bond said his teqnique would allow for the fingerprints left on a small calibre metal cartrige case to be seen even after the gun was fired. So if a bullet was found at the scene of the crime, a fingerprint could be found on the metal and matched to the perp.

Dr. Bond said: “On the basis that processed foods tend to be high in salt as a preservative, the body needs to excrete excess salt which comes out as sweat through the pores in our fingers. So the sweaty fingerprint impression you leave when you touch a surface will be high in salt if you eat a lot of processed foods -the higher the salt, the better the corrosion of the metal."

Its amazing how this discovery can aid tremendously in the field of foresic science. One amazing aspect of Dr. Bond's discovery is that in cases that deal with terrorist, where the evidence is normally obliterated, if a piece of metal or shard of glass is found with sweat residue an easier assessment of the scene will be made. Dr. Bond near the end of the article gives his last remarks of how he described his study of sweat is a process of intelligent fingerprinting and how using this new form of "fingerprint" to tell us more about the individual, rather than simple identification.

Copy and Paste into URL To Ready Article...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080915210509.htm

Olivers Deaths Acre

“Death’s Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm” written by Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson describes the life of Dr Bass during his work at the Body Farm. Each chapter explains different happenings involving the Body Farm and Dr Bass. The first few chapters of the novel describe cases that Bass was involved in. The early parts of this story show the personal life of Dr Bass and his son’s Charlie, Billy, and Jim. He speaks of where he had been employed and what he taught. As the novel continues, you hear of the Indian bodies he excavated by the Missouri River. In one chapter Bass describes crime scenes that were aflame. Bass speaks of the difficulty of finding body parts that have been in fires, disintegration makes bones almost impossible to find. Bass then mentions the advances in anthropology made by Bill Rodriguez. Bill discovered easier ways of identifying bodies and published these findings in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. He told of a protest calling for the Body Farm to be moved away from its current position. Eventually they were bribed and the facility was eventually moved away. Bass was pressured to do all sorts of stuff once the popularity of the Body Farm grew. People demanded video to be released of the experiments done at the facility. Bass turned the people down saying that they didn’t need to see the bodies. The novel “Death’s Acre: Inside the Body Farm” is an interesting story that explains the life of Dr Bass and his work at the Body Farm.

James' Death Acres Essay

Dr. Bill Blass is a forensic scientist. He has practiced for thirty years the techniques that he so carefully researched to find the cause of death, and the nature of the victim’s death.

Dr. Blass has been a pioneer in this field of study, and his lab is found in Tennessee. His creative mind has been so important to the present scientists, who are employed by the legal and medical professions.

Bodies left in many different environments, exposed to the weather, animals, disease, and other factors have helped tell the story through his examination how the victim died, along with a lot of other details that have helped the police solve murder cases. Some of these cases are from many years ago, but through his research they now have the information that may have not been possible back then.

I found this book interesting, but it was hard to read about the details at times, it was very difficult to think that these were real people who had died, and left out to decompose.

Turkish Tribal Capital Unearthed and Studied

MOSCOW - A Russian archaeologist says he has found the lost capital of the Khazars, a powerful nation that adopted Judaism as its official religion more than 1,000 years ago, only to disappear leaving little trace of its culture.

Dmitry Vasilyev, a professor at Astrakhan State University, said his nine-year excavation near the Caspian Sea has finally unearthed the foundations of a triangular fortress of flamed brick, along with modest yurt-shaped dwellings, and he believes these are part of what was once Itil, the Khazar capital.

By law Khazars could use flamed bricks only in the capital, Vasilyev said. The general location of the city on the Silk Road was confirmed in medieval chronicles by Arab, Jewish and European authors.

"The discovery of the capital of Eastern Europe's first feudal state is of great significance," he told The Associated Press. "We should view it as part of Russian history."

Kevin Brook, the American author of "The Jews of Khazaria," e-mailed Wednesday that he has followed the Itil dig over the years, and even though it has yielded no Jewish artifacts, "Now I'm as confident as the archaeological team is that they've truly found the long-lost city,

The Khazars were a Turkic tribe that roamed the steppes from Northern China to the Black Sea. Between the 7th and 10th centuries they conquered huge swaths of what is now southern Russia and Ukraine, the Caucasus Mountains and Central Asia as far as the Aral Sea.

Itil, about 800 miles south of Moscow, had a population of up to 60,000 and occupied 0.8 square miles of marshy plains southwest of the Russian Caspian Sea port of Astrakhan, Vasilyev said.

It lay at a major junction of the Silk Road, the trade route between Europe and China, which "helped Khazars amass giant profits," he said.

The Khazar empire was once a regional superpower, and Vasilyev said his team has found "luxurious collections" of well-preserved ceramics that help identify cultural ties of the Khazar state with Europe, the Byzantine Empire and even Northern Africa. They also found armor, wooden kitchenware, glass lamps and cups, jewelry and vessels for transporting precious balms dating back to the eighth and ninth centuries, he said.

But a scholar in Israel, while calling the excavations interesting, said the challenge was to find Khazar inscriptions.

"If they found a few buildings, or remains of buildings, that's interesting but does not make a big difference," said Dr. Simon Kraiz, an expert on Eastern European Jewry at Haifa University. "If they found Khazar writings, that would be very important."

Vasilyev says no Jewish artifacts have been found at the site, and in general, most of what is known about the Khazars comes from chroniclers from other, sometimes competing cultures and empires.

"We know a lot about them, and yet we know almost nothing: Jews wrote about them, and so did Russians, Georgians, and Armenians, to name a few," said Kraiz. "But from the Khazars themselves we have nearly nothing."

The Khazars' ruling dynasty and nobility converted to Judaism sometime in the 8th or 9th centuries. Vasilyev said the limited number of Jewish religious artifacts such as mezuzas and Stars of David found at other Khazar sites prove that ordinary Khazars preferred traditional beliefs such as shamanism, or newly introduced religions including Islam.

Yevgeny Satanovsky, director of the Middle Eastern Institute in Moscow, said he believes the Khazar elite chose Judaism out of political expediency — to remain independent of neighboring Muslim and Christian states. "They embraced Judaism because they wanted to remain neutral, like Switzerland these days," he said.

In particular, he said, the Khazars opposed the Arab advance into the Caucasus Mountains and were instrumental in containing a Muslim push toward eastern Europe. He compared their role in eastern Europe to that of the French knights who defeated Arab forces at the Battle of Tours in France in 732.

The Khazars succeeded in holding off the Arabs, but a young, expanding Russian state vanquished the Khazar empire in the late 10th century. Medieval Russian epic poems mention Russian warriors fighting the "Jewish Giant."

"In many ways, Russia is a successor of the Khazar state," Vasilyev said.

He said his dig revealed traces of a large fire that was probably caused by the Russian conquest. He said Itil was rebuilt following the fall of the Khazar empire, when ethnic Khazars were slowly assimilated by Turkic-speaking tribes, Tatars and Mongols, who inhabited the city until it was flooded by the rising Caspian Sea around the 14th century.

The study of the Khazar empire was discouraged in the Soviet Union. The dictator Josef Stalin, in particular, detested the idea that a Jewish empire had come before Russia's own. He ordered references to Khazar history removed from textbooks because they "disproved his theory of Russian statehood," Satanovsky said.

Only now are Russian scholars free to explore Khazar culture. The Itil excavations have been sponsored by the Russian-Jewish Congress, a nonprofit organization that supports cultural projects in Russia.

"Khazar studies are just beginning," Satanovsky said.

“Scientists turn on biggest ‘Big Bang Machine’”

“Scientists turn on biggest ‘Big Bang Machine’”
Source: Alan Boyle/MSNBC Colorado Springs

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (11 September 2008) – After 14 years of preparation, a new scientific wonder of the world officially opened its doors for business Wednesday with the official opening of Europe’s Large Hadron Collider.

The particle, which cost $10 billion, is the biggest, most expensive science machine on this planet. It is designed to probe mysteries ranging from dark matter and missing antimatter to the existence of extra and unseen dimensions in outer space.

Beams of protons were sent all the way around the collider’s 17-mile underground ring of supercooled pipes for the first time. While this was taking place, Robert Aymar, Europe’s CERN organization’s director general, said to everyone in the control room, “This is a great day for CERN.”

Forensic Study in Kosovo Villages

U.S. Does Forensic Study in Kosovo Villages on the killings



The Security Council for the U.N. set an emergency session, and the ambassadors of NATO met in Brussels, and as the U.S. called for forensic experts to investigate the massacres of the Kosovo villagers. If the West decided to use force, NATO weaponry and soldiers were gathering to prepare. Still, there is no sign that the Western nations had resolved to strike against Serbian troops. These Serbian troops were carrying out President Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
“If Milosevic doesn’t reverse course, he has begun to get the message that military action is a live and real prospect,” James Foley said. James Foley, who is a spokesman for the State Department also said that “we believe that NATO is for all practical purposes prepared to act, and that NATO is in the last phases of its planning process. He also claims that we’ve got to see the real evidence on the ground, and that he has ended the repression. He’s withdrawn the forces. Michael D. McCurry, the White House spokesman, referred to reports of witnesses about massacres against civilians, said it was “very important to us that the international forensic experts be allowed to inquire further on these events.”
In conclusion, I do think that it is very important to take any statement seriously from the Security Council that supported NATO’s determination to act, because NATO does have the authority to undertake military action on its own initiative.