Ask a Forensic Scientist anything

989 Questions

Last Answer on July 21, 2022

If you get sample of epithelial tissue from a crime scene, can you detect either it comes from a male or a female? How? Does karyotype involves in this differentiation?

Asked by Ian Hale-Carstairs about 12 years ago

I'm sure DNA analysts could determine male from female if we wished. Y-STR testing is used often when there's a mixture of male and female cells, because of course only male would have a Y chromosome. But I really couldn't give you details; I haven't done DNA testing in about 17 years. The two outside labs my agency has used in the past are: http://www.dnacenter.com and http://dnalabsinternational.com. Hope that helps!

1190 Votes

what causes bird foot injury to humans?

Asked by talha almost 12 years ago

I'm sorry, I have absolutely no idea what that is.

1185 Votes

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How difficult, or possible is it for a state lab to lift prints off a small baggie/residue found in an unattended purse,during a chaotic police raid, possibly handled by several, the prints needing to be good enough to be used as evidence in court?

Asked by pazley about 12 years ago

Wow, that's a really specific question. The answer is: you never know until you try. I don't have a lot of luck with plastic bags but my newer co-workers, who have a little more patience with fluorescent dyes than I do, often get good results. It doesn't matter to the fingerprint whether the purse was unattended or not and it doesn't matter how many people handled it, it matters how they handled it. As long as they picked it up by its very edge, they wouldn't harm anything. So it's perfectly possible to get a decent print off it, but I also would not be at all surprised if I didn't because, as I said, plastic bags are very hit-or-miss. Retrieving fingerprints is largely a matter of luck. That's why we never say never.

1183 Votes

What type of factors make it particularly hard to determine the time of death?

Asked by Lee about 12 years ago

Well, time and a moist environment definitely don't help, but I'm afraid that's a question for a pathologist. Sorry I can't be more help.

1182 Votes

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Something really valuable got stolen from my hand bag . Is there a way that a forensic can be done for fingerprints so I can catch the culprit.

Asked by keshni about 12 years ago

See the first Q&A about fingerprints for more info, but purses (fabric, vinyl, leather) are not good surfaces for prints so you might be out of luck. Is there anything on or in the purse that they had to have touched (not just knuckled or pushed aside, actually gripped) that is smooth and glossy? And that hasn't been touched a number of times since? That might be a possibility.

1175 Votes