Ask a Forensic Scientist anything

989 Questions

Last Answer on July 21, 2022

Which is better to be forensic scientist, forensic science in the middle and low university or biology in the good university?

Asked by Kim over 7 years ago

It may depend on what you want to do. If you want to work crime scene, then you might be a more attractive candidate with all the hands-on practical work of a forensic science degree. But if you want to be a DNA analyst, then I’d go with biology. Best thing to do is call the labs where you might someday apply and ask them. Best of luck!

671 Votes

Can a body be in water and not have rigamortis?

Asked by Amanda Marsh over 7 years ago

As far as I know, water doesn’t change the process of rigor mortis. The temperature of the water may speed it up or slow it down, but the process would still occur.

670 Votes

So you wanna be a Forensic Scientist?

Check our Jobstr's career page for salary information, educational requirements, suggested reading and more!

Have you ever been emotional with the cases you have worked on?

Asked by Denise_ot5 about 7 years ago

Once in a great while something will catch me when I’m not expecting it. But very rarely.

670 Votes

How long will latent prints last when ninhydrin is used?

Asked by Krissy over 6 years ago

I'm not sure what you mean: a) how long after a print is left will ninhydrin still detect it, in which case I can say from my own experiment that there's little rhyme or reason to this, sometimes older prints develop better than newer ones or vice versa, or b) how long does a print developed with ninhydrin last, and the answer to that is that ninhydrin is a dark purple dye, so it is permanent, though it will continue to develop so that the entire page may eventually turn purple so we use a fixative chemical on the now-visible print so that will stop the ninhydrin from darkening the paper further. I hope that helps!

669 Votes

Also on Jobstr...

Chef

Is it true that the "specials" are usually the stuff that's been sitting around awhile?

Hotel Travel Blog Active 2019

What do you do if a guest is doing something illegal in a room?

Sommelier

Do you occasionally get a little turned off by wine snobbery?

Hello! How easy is it to collect finger prints, scan them and identify a match (I imagine its very hard) but out of say 100 cases how many could actually be solved using fingerprint analysis?

Asked by Eliza over 6 years ago

Generally about a 6 to 10% identified rate is good. Many prints that are collected at scenes by officers are ‘not of value for comparison ‘ (smudges or only have a few ridges) and many that are good belong to the victim or their friends, family, employees etc.

668 Votes

if a person licks their fingers in order to aid them in counting money, counts the money and hands ti to another individual who places that money in their bra. Can there be saliva dna transfer to the breast?

Asked by angie almost 7 years ago

I suppose that’s theoretically possible, but I wouldn’t think it likely. The saliva would sink into the paper of the money quickly, and then when swabbing the person’s skin you’d have to happen on the exact spot where that tiny bit of saliva transferred to.

I hope that helps!

668 Votes