forensics tagged posts

From “Law and Order” to “CSI,” not to mention real life, investigators have used fingerprints as the gold standard for linking criminals to a crime. But if a perpetrator leaves prints from different fingers in two different crime scenes, these scenes are very difficult to link, and the trace can go cold.

It’s a well-accepted fact in the forensics community that fingerprints of different fingers of the same person—”intra-person fingerprints”—are unique and, therefore, unmatchable.

A team led by Columbia Engineering undergraduate senior Gabe Guo challenged this widely held presumption...

By combining a robotic arm and mass spectrometry, researchers can analyze the surface of 3-D objects, such as footballs. Credit: American Chemical Society

Within the past decade, many advancements have been made in the 3D market from printing to movies. Now scientists report in ACS’ Analytical Chemistry that by combining a robotic arm and mass spectrometry, they can analyze the surface of irregularly shaped 3D objects, potentially opening up new branches of forensics and pharmaceutics.

Mass spectrometry (MS) is a tool that helps researchers identify the components of a sample. In recent years, the instrument has made its way outside the laboratory for use in forensics and drug screening...

Hair shaft proteomic profile in modern and archaeological samples.

Protein identification technique may be used in forensics, archaeology. Unique protein markers in hair could be used alongside DNA profiling for human identification. DNA profiling is commonly used for identification in forensic science and archaeology because DNA is unique to each individual. However, environmental and chemical processes can degrade DNA, limiting its usefulness over time. In contrast, protein is more stable than DNA but can also have variations that may be unique to the individual. Glendon Parker and his team therefore investigated whether the protein found in human hair could offer another tool for identifying individuals.

The researchers were able to examine bioarcheological hair samples from 6 individua...