Tag Archives: forensic

Animal Forensics

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Ivory

Mastodon or mammoth tusk used as an ivory substitute for ivory from a living species. Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

A 2012 report by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species warned that elephant poaching has reached its highest level since record keeping started a decade earlier. This, despite the 1989 international ban on the trade of new ivory. Currently, about 30,000 African elephants are killed every year. Around 400,000 African elephants still exist.

The international ban allows the trade of ivory acquired before 1989. The trick has been to distinguish between old, legal ivory and new, poached ivory. Kevin Uno, a researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is the lead author on a report that describes a technique for determining the age of ivory.

“We’ve developed a tool that allows us to determine the age of a tusk or piece of ivory, and this tells us whether it was acquired legally,” Uno said in a press release. “Our dating method is affordable for government and law enforcement agencies and can help tackle the poaching and illegal trade crises.”

You can find details about the ivory trade problem and the new technique at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory website.

Speaking of animal forensics, NPR recently posted Rhitu Chatterjee’s article about Carla Dove, an ornithologist and a forensic expert. Working in a forensics lab at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Dove identifies birds from feathers and bone fragments. Her work is quite varied – from identifying birds that collide with airplanes to identifying avian prey of giant Burmese pythons slithering in Florida’s Everglades. Chatterjee’s article is a good starting point for an overview of the field of forensic ornithology.

 

Reconstructing a Car Crash

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In February 2010, a $250,000 Bentley crashed into a Hyundai Sonata, pushing the car sideways and into a water-filled canal. Water rushed into the upside-down Hyundai and caused the trapped driver to drown. Near the scene of the collision, police found the Bentley’s driver exhibiting signs of alcohol intoxication. An investigation led to the conviction of the Bentley driver for DUI manslaughter, an investigation aided by technology that reconstructed the crash.

Posted on the Evidence Technology Magazine website, Troy Snelgrove and Bob Galvin’s article, “Collision: An Accident Reconstruction Case Study,” details the methods investigators used to discover the facts behind the car collision. The article and accompanying video are good resources for anyone who wants to include this aspect of forensics in a story. Another helpful resource is the Forensic Accident website. In addition to information about accident reconstruction, you’ll find a glossary of automotive body terms – the type of terms that your fictional expert should know.

 

Critter Forensics

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Mystery photo

Mystery photo. Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service.

 

The above is a photo of snake wine. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) explains that, in many parts of Asia, medicinal benefits are thought to be achieved by storing snakes – even rare and endangered snakes – in rice wine. This is one of many mystery photos that you can find on the USFWS Forensics Laboratory website.

According to the USFWS, its forensics laboratory is the only lab dedicated to crimes against wildlife. Operating like a typical police crime lab, the agency’s technicians examine, identify, and compare physical evidence to link suspects, victims, and crime scenes.

The start of the lab can be found in 1979, when the USFWS hired Ken Goddard, a police crime laboratory director from southern California to establish a forensics lab that would support wildlife law enforcement. After six months of drafting evidence handling protocols and chapters for a lab manual, Goddard learned that he would also have to find a way to fund the lab. You can read the story about the history of the forensics lab on the USFWS website.

The website also offers video tours of various departments of the forensic lab, details about the role of their investigators, an overview of the types of evidence that they analyze, and many free publications. It’s a great resource for anyone who plans to include this aspect of forensic science in a story.

 

Unraveling DNA Mixtures

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DNA mixture

 

The New York Times’ Liz Robbins recently reported a development in forensic DNA analysis. Over the past several decades, improvements in synthesizing DNA from trace amounts greatly increased the sensitivity of DNA profiling. Yet increasing sensitivity does not provide a solution to cases in which evidence contains trace amounts of DNA from several people.

Theresa A. Caragine and Adele A. Mitchell of the New York City medical examiner office’s forensic biology lab may have a solution. Their Forensic Statistical Tool is an algorithm for a software program that enables analysis of a DNA mixture uncovered from a crime scene and determines the probability that the DNA brew includes a defendant’s DNA profile.

Before judges allow results of the technology in court, the technique must survive Frye hearings. A Frye hearing is a challenge to the general scientific acceptance of new technology. Several Frye hearings are scheduled in New York courts.