Iris scans could be 'as common as fingerprinting'

by team UAB,JMD

It appears that this new technology is hitting stations accross the nation. However, it seems as if though it is doing just what fingerprints and DNA technologies do: identify people. The good thing about this new eye-scanning technology is that it can find matches within seconds instead of waiting weeks, even months for results. I think that this is worth putting extra money into in order to perfect the system and spread its use. It may be a little more costly than other methods, but I think that the quickness of identifying offenders far outweighs the costs. I am not advocating that we push fingerprint and DNA technology to the way-side either. Mainly because people's iris' are not left at crime scenes. However, I think that this new scanning technique will be a good way to supplement our existing techniques. Thus, making the probability of convictions even greater.

More than 2,100 departments in 27 states are taking digital pictures of eyes and storing the information in databases that can be searched later to identify a missing person or someone who uses a fake name,.

It is futuristic in nature but definitly feasible. also, it has a lot of support from law enforcement.

The First Gunshot Victim of the New World

by team ala

This article is a really great examle of how forensic techniques can be still be used on people that have been dead for hundreds of years.

Forensic scientists in Connecticut said the position of the round holes and some minuscule iron particles showed that the person most likely was shot and killed by a Spanish musket ball.

DNA Evidence: The Savior for the Wrongly Accused

by team UAB jld

DNA evidence gives a woman back her life after spending 13 years in jail for a murder she did not commit.

A judge's decision to vacate the verdict and order a new trial made her the first woman in the U.S. to have a murder conviction overturned on the basis of DNA evidence.

Stories like this make me excited to get into this field. To have an opportunity to clear people's names and make a real difference in society. However, I can't understand why they are going to try this poor woman for second degree manslaughter after she spent 13 years in prison for a crime she did not commit. Even if she was convicted she would not spend any time in jail. It just seems like they are pouring salt on a open wound.

CT Autopsies

by team uab, db

Seems like this type of autopsy would have been put to use years ago.

"CT is a sensitive imaging tool for detecting injuries and cause of death in victims of blunt trauma," said Barry Daly, M.D.; When there are major injuries, such as those resulting from a motor vehicle accident, CT may provide enough information to enable a conventional autopsy to be avoided altogether."

What a wonderful resource to forensic pathology. These CT Autopsies could save medical examiners time on both conventional autopsies and preliminary autopsies involving gunshot wounds or suspected foul play.

Life as a Forensic Biologist

by team UAB KPF

These forensic biologists in Kentucky describe what they encounter as forensic biologist working in a state lab.

"The job consists of long hours and late nights," explained Christian. "We sometimes have to travel long distances to testify in court." The scientists are faced with a large backlog of cases. "The supervisor receives evidence. He or she will then assign cases," replied Christian. "An average analyst will have 50-60 cases they are working on."

This career is definitely where my interest lies! I am excited about becoming a part of a team that will help solve crimes, catch perpetrators, and identify unknown victims. Hard work and commitment are essential to doing the job well. I know that all of my classmates will be prepared for this!

DNA Database Effective, But Not Utilized to Full Potential

By Team UAB bs

Now it seems commonplace for states to have CODIS, a DNA database for convicted felons and crime scene evidence. Too bad it's not as common to test old evidence.

"Studies of wrongful convictions suggest that there are thousands more innocent people in jails and prisons. The Innocence Project, the nation’s most prominent organization devoted to proving wrongful convictions, is pursuing 250 cases and at any given time is reviewing 6,000 to 10,000 additional cases for legal action. Approximately 1 percent of those cases will be accepted, and half of those accepted cases are closed because evidence has been lost or destroyed."

DNA from old cases where the technology was not as sensitive or perhaps not yet available should now be reviewed to see if there is a match, or not.

"In a 2005 study, a University of Michigan Law School professor, Samuel R. Gross, estimated that 340 prisoners sentenced from 1989 to 2003 had been exonerated."

That's an average of nearly 25 people per year! I realize funding is an issue, but really what's more cost effective; paying someone to work on evidence to release what would probably far exceed 25 innocent people per year, or losing years of potential freedom and settling for thousands or millions of dollars in damages once they are released.

"The most recent prisoner to be exonerated by DNA evidence was Dwayne Allen Dail, who served 18 years in North Carolina for a false conviction of child rape. Prosecutors had used the victim’s identification of Mr. Dail and hair found at the crime scene to convict him. Years later, after repeated inquires from defense lawyers, the police found a box of additional evidence in the case that contained the victim’s semen-stained nightgown. DNA analysis ruled out Mr. Dail and implicated another man. Mr. Dail was released from prison in August."

First of all, why did he need repeated inquiries? This shouldn't be so difficult. Secondly, CODIS actually matched someone else. There should be a better way to get old evidence into the system for cases where the conviction wasn't made on DNA evidence, but where it was available. Perhaps it may have been discovered that Mr. Dail wasn't a match LONG ago. By now we should have diminished the backlog of convicted felons to be put into the system. Now we need to work on the backlog of old evidence.

Everything's Virtual, Including Autopsies

by team UAB, slh

Is new science always better, or are we approaching virtual insanity?

In cases of suspicious death, the procedure does not damage or destroy key forensic evidence, as can happen during a conventional autopsy.

Drug Testing Misunderstood

by blogger jgl

This case really irks me. First off, I'll be the first to admit that mistakes can be made in labs and it is entirely possible for false positives to occur. I will feel extremely bad for this guy if it turns out the lab made a mistake. However, if a mistake does occur, "proving your innocence" through shoddy forensic science is not the right path to take. Pay attention, forensic scientists! This is a classic example of an inappropriate use of forensic science to sway public opinion.

A summary of the case is as follows: Bronco's tailback Travis Henry tested positive for THC (urine). He's "proves" his innocence by taking a lie detector test and having his hair tested for drugs.

Travis Henry has convinced coach Mike Shanahan he's not a pothead. Now he'll take his case to the NFL. Shanahan said Henry passed a lie detector test and a recent hair sample taken from Henry came back negative for marijuana. "If the tests were positive, Travis would not be on our football team right now," Shanahan said. "When he went back and took the hair sample and that was negative, the lie detector test and that was negative, we'll let due process take care of itself. If Travis took a test and it was positive, after what he promised me, he wouldn't be on the football team right now."

Mainly because of his attempts to prove his innocence using *science*, his coach and TV personalities (including ESPN's Michael Wilbon and Dan LeBatard) are convinced he is likely telling the truth. I don't expect these guys to know anything about drug testing, but here are the facts:

Lie detectors DO NOT WORK.
Drug testing of hair DOES NOT WORK (for the most part).

Even if hair testing did work all the time, his hair is awfully short (grown in since the last drug test). By taking these bogus tests that scientifically prove nothing, Travis Henry has tricked educated people into jumping on his bandwagon. This demonstrates something most forensic scientists know, *the public often perceives anything scientific as infallible, but can't differentiate between "good" and "bad" science.*

If he really wanted to proclaim his innocence, then he should request that the lab retest his original sample. I don't work in a workplace drug testing lab, but don't they save a portion of samples for some length of time afterwards? Is Henry claiming his sample was mixed up with someone else's? How likely is this? Oh wait, it looks like the lab does have another sample that's already been tested according to this article.

But in a battle that has reached the federal court system, Henry is attempting to block the league from testing the so-called "B-sample" necessary to confirm the positive test, claiming that NFL officials would not allow his expert to be present for the testing of his specimen.

Something doesn't smell right. Plus, I hate to use a non-scientific fact to prove a point, but Henry has tested positive for drugs before (in 2005).

Lack of common sense in a murder investigation, baffling, I know.

by team UAB, db

What is wrong with people?

University of Washington student Amanda Marie Knox of Seattle is one of the three suspects in the death of her roommate. Also detained are Knox's Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, 23, and Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, 38, the owner of the pub where Knox has been working part-time. All three deny any involvement, their lawyers said.

Of course they denied involvement in a murder case, what where the Italian police expecting, a triple confession?.

The judge said Knox was hazy about the events from smoking hashish before the slaying, even though she accused Lumumba of the crime in her meetings with the prosecutors, according to the 19-page ruling.

I'm sure her memories were hazy...but wait, that's not all.

Sollecito had previously claimed he had not been at the apartment on the night of the murder, but his footprint and fingerprints were found in Kercher's blood.

Sollectico's thoughts: Damn that little thing called trace evidence!

DNA Center Stage for Texas Cold Case

by team UAB, CHWB

How much can contamination affect DNA results? Will it be enough to provide reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors? The defense seemed to take note of OJ's defense Dream Team strategy.

"Evidence was picked up by people who had no idea DNA would be important 24 years later," Griffith said. "We wouldn't do it that way now."

Case of the Bloody Garbage Truck

by team UAB, lsw

A brief, but interesting article from Australia:

Police scientists were called in to test a large amount of blood which collected in the back of a garbage truck at Camperdown in Sydney's inner-west on Tuesday morning. Initial tests on the blood were inconclusive, but tests eventually confirmed it was not human. Garbage collectors had noticed the blood oozing out the back of their truck about 7am (AEST) and raised the alarm.

It's good to know that people are willing to get involved, and call the authorities, when they see something suspicious. At the same time, it also demonstrates the importance of presumptive and confirmatory tests. Something may look like blood, and may even be blood, but it may not be human blood. So where did this (non-human) blood come from? The police couldn't find any answers:

In full view of curious local residents, forensic officers spent several hours searching the truck's smelly contents for clues to the source of the blood, but found nothing.

NOTE: The above image is from a Google Images search, and is unrelated to the case.

Picric Acid, What is it good for?

found by troy m;comments by blogger jgl

There was some "old" picric acid in a forensic lab that had to be detonated. Picric acid is nasty stuff that has to be kept under liquid. Dry crystals are explosive (or something like that). I'm sure there is a legitimate reason, but does anyone know what this stuff is used for in a forensic lab?

The Alameda County Bomb Squad today detonated vials of crystallized picric acid from a forensics laboratory in Hayward, fire officials reported... ... "(There were) 100 grams in two small vials, (with) 10 to 20 little crystals at the bottom of the vials and the remainder sealed in liquid form," Berg said. The chemical in the vials was about two years old, and when crystallized the acid becomes unstable and extremely reactive, according to Berg... ... Berg said forensics laboratories often have hazardous materials on site, but when used in a lab they are considered under control. However, in today's case, the crystallized picric acid was deemed out of control and required fire officials on site.

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…

Krrk… This is your Fantasy Land tour guide. Please prepare for our return to reality…

Mobile DNA - maybe, maybe, maybe

submit by troym; comments by blogger jgl

I think this lab-on-a-chip idea has been around for a while. If I'm not mistaken, there are some ideas based on SNP analysis, but this seems like true STR work. No new databases needed.

The goal of the new technology is to shorten the time it takes to process DNA samples, so they can be used to identify suspects while a crime scene is still fresh. Currently, samples are processed in a lab, which can take days or weeks. Richard Mathies, a chemistry professor and creator of the device, hopes his technology will cut that down to hours... ...But there's still work to be done, Mathies said, such as integrating the whole process into one machine. The Gattaca Project only performs two of the four steps in DNA analysis... ...The machine is a miniaturized version of what you'd find in a lab, and looks like a black box the size of a briefcase. It uses a microchip and a laser beam the size of hair to measure the length of DNA fragments...

I'm guessing the 2 of 4 steps mentioned are separation and measurement? so it's like a 310 in a box? ... with the other 2 steps being extraction and amplification.

If my assumptions are right, then this is fairly good news. I assume that only "good quality" samples would be analyzed at the scene, so a quick and dirty extraction should be pretty easy. The amping will be tough, especially a "quick" one, but a mobile thermal cycler isn't completely unreasonable. I'm guessing starting out, a full multiplex reaction wouldn't be necessary either... wouldn't just 4 STRs be enough to cut down a list of suspects to a useful number?

Is there more info anywhere? i googled gattaca and didn't come up with much non-ethanhawke material.

Search for Amelia Earhart continues...

by team uab, lsw

A research team from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) is en route to the South Pacific island of Nikumaroro, where some believe Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan may have become stranded in 1937:

Once at the 2 1/2-mile-long island, the group was to spend 17 days searching for human bones, aircraft parts and any other evidence to try to show that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, reached the island on July 2, 1937, crashed on a reef at low tide and made it to shore, where they possibly lived for months as castaways, written off by the world as lost at sea.

The team is hoping to build upon previous discoveries on this island, like airplane parts consistent with (but not specifically identifiable as) Earhart's plane. This sounds like fun, BUT...

The conditions during the search will be punishing, with the explorers forced to contend with dense jungle vegetation, 100-degree heat, sharks that reside in a lagoon in the middle of the island and voracious crabs that make it necessary to wear shoes at all times.

However, the crabs, when supplied with pig bones, may actually help the search:

Kar Burns, one of two anthropologists on the team, hopes coconut crabs native to the island — some as big as 2 1/2 feet across — will carry the pig bones to wherever human bones might have been taken by crabs. DNA from human bones could help solve the mystery, [TIGHAR director] Gillespie said.

It's hard to deny that a lot of people still want to know what happened to Earhart. I was wondering how this type of research--which has got to be expensive--gets funded. On its website, TIGHAR states that it is a non-profit organization which relies upon "corporate and individual sponsors". The site has a lot of info, and appears to be worth a look.

Wanted: Fingerprint Removal Surgeon

found by troym

The charges conspiring to distribute marijuana and being an accomplice and accessory after the fact to marijuana dealing stem from surgery he performed on a Jamaican man to replace his fingerprints with skin from his feet... ...In an interview after his arrest, Covarrubias admitted that he performed the fingerprint procedure on five people, including his co-defendant, and that he was aware that all of them were wanted by the law, Ballou said.

Spector Case... experts or hired guns?

Guilty... of a hair-don't.
by blogger jgl

I have been following this trial in a half-assed sort of way. Some of the testimony bothers me. Sure, it is reasonable that 2 scientists come to different conclusions over "objective" physical evidence, but it seems like both sides are strongly declaring themselves right and the other side wrong. Scientists know it is not black and white. Do you have to fake it in court?

For example, Spector claims to have been 6 feet away from where the actress shot herself. He had blood spatter on him. Can blood spatter travel 6 feet? One person says blood spatter can only travel 2 feet. Another person says it's consistent with traveling 6 feet. They both are using different studies to support themselves.

DiMaio also defended his reliance on a German study of blood spatter in which a scientist shot calves to collect evidence on how far blood spatter can travel. American studies cited by the prosecution involved experiments shooting into sponges.

Can't we just have one expert giving both sides of the argument? (sure, that's a stupid question)

What really bothered me is a statement that DiMaio made that went something like... since 99% of oral gunshots are suicides, statistically, this is probably a suicide. Then he implies his "statistical reasoning" is just like DNA testimony.

Dr. Vincent DiMaio said he was basing his opinions on scientific evidence and not trying to help Spector, for whom he is working. Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson accused DiMaio of relying too heavily on statistics that the majority of women who commit suicide use handguns. "Statistics don't get us any closer to the facts of this case, do they?" asked Jackson. "If we didn't use statistics you would have to discard DNA," said DiMaio. "DNA is all probabilities."

I'm no statistician and don't know much about no logic... but isn't there a flaw with that comparison?

Forensic Entomology - Worst Job Ever (almost)

submit by troym; comments by blogger jgl

Two links for this post. Both about forensic entomology...

The first was submitted by troy m about how tricky species ID of insects can be. Identifying the species of a maggot is the first step in accurately estimating how old the maggot is, which helps estimate how long a body has been dead.
Click here for the full story.

Misidentification of insects can also lead forensic scientists astray, says Kimsey. At a recent North American Forensic Entomology meeting she assembled six blowfly specimens and asked attendees to identify them. "No one identified them all correctly," says Kimsey. "We were very discouraged. If you can't identify the blowfly correctly, then your estimation of the postmortem interval could be wrong."

Next is one I found floating around the web. A look at the worst jobs in science. Look who comes in at number 9.

As a result of the success of such television shows as "CSI," the forensics field has undergone a dramatic overhaul in the eyes of the public. But don't be fooled, forensic entomology is not for the faint of heart, the squeamish, nor the insectophobic. These scientists spend their days basking in the florescent light of the city or county morgue analyzing bugs on decaying corpses. They check maggots, larvae, blowflies and anything that breeds off of decaying human flesh in order to determine the "postmortem interval," or the gap between the time of death and time of the body's discovery. "It's incredibly gross," Ward said. "The people who handle [forensic entomology] are a whole other species of human, as far as I can tell,...

Man, rough week for the bug guys.

Ancestry.com says you are not the father!

by blogger jgl

At first glance, this story is of minor interest.

The rapidly growing field of online genealogical searches is expanding to genetic testing, courtesy of a new partnership between the Internet's largest family history Web site, Ancestry.com, and Sorenson Genomics, a privately held DNA research firm... ...Ancestry.com plans to launch the DNA testing product by the end of summer, offering customers the possibility of finding DNA matches in the site's 24,000 genealogical databases.

But then I started thinking about a statistic I heard many ago about paternity. I can't remember what the estimate was, or how reliable it was... but apparently if everyone took a paternity test there would be some very surprised kids and husbands. This could be a very dangerous road.

I wonder how ancestry.com would handle a situation like that.