Our Lab is Your Lab (and my lab)

submit by troy m; comments by blogger jgl

Wait a minute... I saw Marg Helgenberger do this on CSI!

A Michigan State Police forensic scientist, who has worked on many high-profile cases, admitted using the state's crime lab to conduct her own DNA testing, transcripts of divorce hearings show. Ann Gordon, who court documents refer to as Ann Chamberlain-Gordon, admitted to the attorney representing her former husband, Charles Gordon, that she used crime lab equipment in 2006 to test his underwear - finding evidence of another woman's DNA.

Anyone out there ever have an affair? How does a woman's DNA get on your underwear. I mean if you're... eh, nevermind.

Chemical Fingerprinting BS

by blogger jgl

Just for the record, I *rarely* pee on my hands.

Chemical residues contain a few millionths of a gram of fluid and can be found on all fingerprints. Conventional fingerprinting techniques often distort or destroy vital chemical information with no easy way of lifting residues for chemical imaging, until now. Imperial scientists found that the use of gel tapes, commercial gelatine based tape, provides a simple method for collection and transportation of prints for chemical imaging analysis. The prints, once lifted, are analysed in a spectroscopic microscope. The sample is irradiated with infrared rays to identify individual molecules within the print to give a detailed chemical composition… …Chemical clues could also highlight specific traits in a person. A strong trace of urea, a chemical found in urine, could indicate a male. Weak traces of urea in a chemical sample could indicate a female. Specific amino acids could potentially indicate whether the suspect was a vegetarian or meat-eater…

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