Explosives

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101021131605.htm

      For almost a decade Christine Mahoney and a team of scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have been working towards stopping the threat of terrorist-based attacks. They are doing this by creating a sound measurement and a standard infrastructure. One of the measurement techniques is called Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry and it is proving to be critical in identifying the various components of explosives. This technique is mass spectrometric-based imaging that can detect components like binders, oils, and the explosives themselves. This is better than gas or liquid chromatography because it can provide a partial analysis of extracted samples. ToF-SIMS provides rapid identification of both organic and inorganic constituents. It is also well0suited for direct analysis of small explosive particles collected directly in the field and sent to the lab. Mahoney says that the laboratory technique is sensitive enough to detect bits of explosive material scattered in a fingerprint. The ultimate goal of this technology is to use it to create standardized reference samples.

 

     This article is important to today’s forensic world because it has provided a whole new technology for explosives. This technology is much faster and much more accurate in identifying explosives and their different components. Also once it is used to create reference samples it will make examining explosives much easier and faster.

 

     This was a very good and informational article. It presented a new break through in forensic technology very well. It could use an example or something like that but it was still a very good and important article.

New Forensic Camera Can Spot Bloodstains

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/11/12/Forensic-camera-can-spot-bloodstains/UPI-69511289608295/

      Recently, U.S. researchers claimed to have developed a new camera allowing criminalists to scan a crime scene for bloodstains without altering or destroying valuable evidence. The researchers that developed the camera prototype can detect bloodstains even when the sample has been diluted to a great extent. Usually, bloodstains are detected by spraying a chemical called luminol around the crime scene that reacts with the iron in any blood present to emit a blue glow that can be seen in the dark. However, luminol is toxic, and can dilute blood samples making the DNA difficult to recover, and can smear blood spatter patterns that often tell how the victim died. In addition, it can produce false positives by reacting with things like bleach, rust, carbonated soft drinks and coffee. In spite of this, This new camera can distinguish between blood and all four of those substances, the researchers say. The way the camera works is when it take an image of a scene, it beams pulses of infrared light on a surface and then detects the infrared light that is reflected back off it. A special filter placed in front of the camera's detector can make a diluted blood stain show up against its surroundings by filtering out wavelengths that aren't characteristic of blood proteins. Researchers say that different filters could detect contrasts between a surface and any type of stain, such as sweat and lipids in fingerprints not visible to the naked eye.

     This is a breakthrough in forensic science for the reason that this special camera can identify blood stains in a crime scene without tampering with any valuable evidence, therefore making the evidence authentic and accurate

     Overall, i thought this article was interesting because of how this breakthrough can change so much in forensic sciences and make the blood stain detection method faster,accurate, and reliable

Forensic Accounting

Article found at: http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/articles/news/11/15/Fishbowl-the-Forensic-Accountant-A-Closer-Look-at-the-Skills-Forensic-Accounting-Education-Should-Emphasize

     The article was about the skills a good forensic accountant needs, but first it told exactly what a forensic accountant does. Forensic accountants are tasked with tracing the bank accounts of criminals and terrorists to find where they have hidden stolen money or were they are hiding. They also try to figure out whether or not a person or company has committed fraud. Companies also hire forensic accountants to evaluate their assets before making a big decision.

     The article then went on to describe qualities that a good forensic accountant needs and cited a survey of forensic accounting practitioners and educators. The skills they seemed to think were most important for a for forensic accountant were deductive analysis, critical thinking, unstructured problem solving, investigative flexibility, analytical proficiency, oral communication, written communication, specific legal knowledge, and composure. It ended with suggestions on how these skills can be integrated into a forensic accounting curriculum.

     I liked this article in general because it gave a good summary of what exactly a forensic accountant is and what they need to do that job well. It also gave good suggestions on how to teach forensic accounting. The one thing I didn’t like was the way they presented the survey results. It got very repetitive as those surveyed all answered the questions in exactly the same way. They made a new paragraph for each question and all the paragraphs seemed the same.I choose this article because I don’t know much about forensic accounting and I wanted to know more. It impressed me because I didn’t realize how important forensic accounting is for things like tracking down terrorists.

$18 Million to Man Wrongly Imprisoned

Kip Stack 11/1/10

Forensics C Block Mr. Ippolito

Just recently a man who was wrongly accused of rape, robbery, and assault was let out of prison. He was let out due to testing of his DNA and the fact that it did not match the DNA collected from the victim. He has been in prison for more than two decades and for the past four years he has been fighting to have DNA evidence from the case tested against his DNA. He also received help from his lawyer and the Innocence Project group to rerun tests on the crime scene DNA against his DNA. “It said that of about 50 people from New York City it had represented in the last five years, half had received the DNA evidence in their cases from the city. In the other cases, the city was unable to produce the evidence or explain what had happened to it.” In the end since he was falsely accused the jury said that what the city did had violated his rights and he was awarded $18.5 million.

This article may change how forensic science is conducted because the New York City police department was so careless and just jumped to a conclusion. Now the forensic scientists will most likely be much more careful and base their accusations and conclusions on results. Just reading this article may scare people because after this incident their might be a fear of other people being wrongly accused. There also might be questions about other cases in the past and how other people in prison right now might be innocent. I chose this article because reading the title caught my attention. As I read it, it made me become interested to know how many falsely accused people are in prison and how many mistakes the police have made.

Overall I think the article was well written, but there are a few areas of it where the author could have improved. I think it could have been better if he expanded more about the forensic science part. Another area where I think there could have been improvement was talk a little less on what he has been up to lately.

Spontaneous Combustion

          This article gives an explanation of the term, “spontaneous combustion” and explains the factors that contribute to this action. Combustion happens when materials heat up to the point of burning without the absorbing heat from its surroundings. This act most commonly happens amongst paints, oils, sawdust, hay, waste paper, coal and charcoal.  One exception is when levels of oxidations or heat drawn in are minimal like in rusty iron. The levels of heat supply and oxidation are important because in order for the reaction to be successful, it is often very hard to study the causes and properties of this reaction because there are usually no remaining materials. There are two forms of detection in this case, one is to determine the increased burning in the center of the object versus the outside; and another form of detection is to justify that after attempts to put out a flame, the results were to only to light up in flames again.
   
          This article is important to society because spontaneous combustion is a frequently talk about topic; however, there is frequently no definite answer. These studies to try an understand combustion is going to help give us a better understanding of what combustion is, and could later on eliminate arson suspected crimes if there were ways to rule out a person starting a fire instead of natural causes.
    
          I think the article was well written and somewhat informative; however, more information on why it is a useful form of research would have been beneficial. Also, more knowledge on who is studying combustion and for what reasons seem to be an important factor for this topic since there is really no presentation of background information on who is doing these studies and the purposes.

"Forensic Biology  »  Articles  »  Anthropology »  "Truth In Bones"" The Bronx High School of Science. Web. 01 Nov. 2010.

Posted for A. Sher

After 15 years in prison, Montgomery man is cleared of murder.

            Jermaine Arrington, who has been incarcerated for the past 15 years, was just released last week after being exonerated of 2^nd Degree Murder. In 1994, two groups of friends were attending a cookout in Montgomery County when a dispute erupted between the two groups. Paul Simmons was stabbed and Jermaine Arrington was accused of the stabbing, five witnesses claiming that he had done it—two saying they had seen Arrington stab Simmons and three saying that they had heard Arrington claim they had stabbed Simmons. Prosecutors were bolstered in their argument by the testimony of a forensic chemist. The scientist claimed that the blood found on the sweatpants of Jermaine Arrington was a match to Paul Simmons’ blood through various enzyme tests. 15 years later and the enzyme tests and the testimony from the witnesses are being brought into question. Arrington and his lawyer had ordered a new blood test while Arrington was behind bars and the results stated that the blood found on Jermaine Arrington’s sweatpants was not that of Paul Simmons but of some unknown individual. This was very heartening for the defense and another trial was ordered. Now Arrington is a free man and just wants to put the last 15 years of his life behind him.

            This incident is important because it is a sobering thought about forensic science and how much stock society throws into a sometimes-haphazard process. Because the test results were one thing and not the other a man went to jail for 15 years of his life and was then subsequently released from jail. The article was almost a comment on how much more rigorous testing needs to be in question of forensic evidence because one wrong test result could ruin any given suspect’s life and could make a guilty person free. All in the entire article was comprehensive and a good summary of a pretty unfortunate incident. Jermaine Arrington is now free and the family of Paul Simmons is mournful, still believing that Arrington is the killer and that this is no justice for Simmons’ memory.

Works Cited

Morse, Dan. “After 15 years in prison, Montgomery man is cleared of murder.” The Washington Post 31 Oct. 2010: n. pag. Web. 31 Oct. 2010. 

Posted for J. O'Neill