From accidents to crime scenes, scientists are helping detectives solve mysteries.
Suppose you’ve just been in a car accident. A sport utility vehicle slammed into your little sedan at high speed. After the impact, your vehicle spun around before crashing into a telephone pole. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but the SUV sped away before you had a chance to see its license plate. What do you do?
You’d probably wait for an ambulance to take you to the hospital to get checked out. Meanwhile, police officers would arrive at the scene. They’d talk to witnesses, examine skid marks, make measurements, take photographs, and collect shards of glass and other scraps. Then a team of forensic scientists would analyze the data for clues that could lead them to the vehicle (and driver) that hit your car.
Microscopes and chemical equipment are important tools for forensic chemists, who must examine crime-scene clues.
Forensics is the application of science to solving crimes, and scientists are getting really good at it. You may have heard of (or even seen) adult TV shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. This program and others like it have sparked widespread interest in the tricks and techniques that scientists use to solve legal puzzles.
Forensic biologists analyze blood, hair, and saliva to identify criminals. Forensic…