Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Microbial Justice



Microbes in criminal justice have been used for hundreds of years, to catch the killer or even be the cause of death for the victim.  Little is known however that microbes could in fact be a new concept to discovering key factors for victims. Right now we have a less effective method, the way we identify the Time of death for victims is fly larvae. This is incredibly flaw because we don’t know when the bug could have landed on the victim, the article I viewed instead discovered new methods of research, identifying when the victim had died is crucial, it can create a window of opportunity and answer some questions detectives have for suspects. Could microorganisms help us uncover secrets that could bring the killers down?

The article was extremely interesting and understandable, when the article introduced new ideas it was immediate backed with research and quotations from prestigious professors and experts in the field. The article also introduced an interesting historical point explaining how we identified Point of Death for people. The idea for microbes being the key organisms for this new idea was also tested, rats were tested after they died and samples of their microbial ecosystems were identified. It was found that Achaea, bacteria and Rhizobiales all are key organisms for identifying point of death. The article in the end introduced an interesting solution to a problem, the sooner we can test this method on humans could help answer questions for grieving families and put people behind bars a lot quicker.



Article: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/37652/title/Microbes-May-Help-Solve-Mysteries/
Picture 1: https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7092183040/hFA23D397/
Picture 2: http://www.newyorker.com/images/2007/05/07/p465/070507_r16153_p465.jpg

1 comment:

  1. Little was known that microbes could potentially be a way to track down criminals ten even twenty years ago. Now that science has grown so big, the technology helping science shows how microbes are a crucial part to have for investigations these days. The way the article was built makes it that much more interesting. As your article explains it will help identify the point of death of a human, it will help any investigation; making it that much more easier. It will be amazing to see this method in action.

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