Forensics Science Report
Most people are familiar with security technology that scans a person's handprint or eye for identification purposes. Now, thanks in part to research from North Carolina State University, we are closer to practical technology that can test someone's voice to confirm their identity.
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 | UCLA scientists working with the Los Angeles Police Department to analyze crime patterns report that criminal "hotspots" come in at least two different types -- one of which can be suppressed by police. They believe their findings apply to cities worldwide. ...> Full Article |
Whether used to clinch a guilty verdict or predict the end of a CSI episode, DNA evidence has given millions of people a sense of certainty -- but the outcomes of using DNA evidence have often been far from certain, according to David Kaye, Distinguished Professor of Law at Penn State. In his new book, "The Double Helix and the Law of Evidence" (Harvard University Press), Kaye focuses on the intersection of science and law, and emphasizes that DNA evidence is merely information.
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The European Commission Joint Research Centre is among the few laboratories in the world that can provide the highly specialised analytical methods and techniques needed for nuclear safeguards and forensics purposes. In Europe, the JRC's Institute for Transuranium Elements supports Euratom Safeguards. At international level, the JRC cooperates with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Soon, JRC will enhance its capabilities to find nuclear materials in aerosol particles, this will be like finding a needle in a hay stack.
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Research being undertaken at the University of Leicester highlights a career change for criminals from the more traditional household burglaries to personal muggings.
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 | Scientists in Poland are describing how a medical imaging technique has taken on a second life in revealing forgery of an artist's signature and changes in inscriptions on paintings that are hundreds of years old. A report on the technique, called optical coherence tomography, is in ACS' Accounts of Chemical Research, a monthly journal. ...> Full Article |
Wilson Wall brings the worlds of science and law together to equip scientists to play the vital role of expert witness in a court room.
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A new intelligent system has been developed to help identify terrorists carrying explosives. Sensitive electronic noses capture the smell of the explosives; the system processes the acquired data, correlates it with individuals' movements … and ultimately tracks down the suspects.
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 | A recent AFOSR-funded technology should enable the Air Force to achieve advances in object and target detection technology by using sophisticated algebraic theories called groups, rings and fields.
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 | The police service faces a host of new challenges but also opportunities in the wake of the Sept. 11 and July 7 terrorism attacks and the global economic downturn. ...> Full Article |
Using literature written by Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence and Herman Melville, physicists in Sweden have developed a formula to detect different authors' literary "fingerprints."
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 | Two researchers from the University of Salamanca have developed a procedure to enable forensic police to extract metric data from crime scenes using just a single photograph. Their proposal, published recently in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, makes it possible to reconstruct a crime scene in 3-D. ...> Full Article |
There is no quantitative standard used by the worldwide fingerprint community to determine the quantity and quality of information in an image or for the number of points of comparison required for identification. The National Institute of Justice has awarded researchers at Virginia Tech a two-year, $854,907 grant to develop a quantitative approach to measuring and establishing a standard for "sufficiency" of information available in fingerprint patterns.
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 | NIST researchers have created a novel and simple way to analyze samples that are complex mixtures -- such as whole milk, blood serum and dirt in solution -- by adapting a NIST-developed separation technique called gradient elution moving boundary electrophoresis. ...> Full Article |
Mercyhurst College Department of Applied Forensic Science is staging a series of mock fatal fire scenes as part of NIJ-funded research to enhance protocols for the recovery and analysis of burned human remains.
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