Ask a Forensic Scientist anything

989 Questions

Last Answer on July 21, 2022

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!

659 Votes

Do you think Roger Stone is guilty or innocent or unsure?

Asked by JW about 6 years ago

Who’s Roger Stone?

659 Votes

So you wanna be a Forensic Scientist?

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what would i need to study to become a forensic pathologist?

Asked by esthers33741212 over 7 years ago

Medicine. Forensic pathologists are doctors and go to medical school. So I would suggest you take every science course you can, especially biological sciences. Best of luck to you!

658 Votes

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.

658 Votes

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Do you worry about the corona virus?

Asked by Jamie about 6 years ago

So far it hasn’t come up in my work, and we have lots of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).

658 Votes

Do you think physical evidence has increased in importance over the last several decades, with advancements in technology and testing procedures? Why or why not?

Asked by Ar over 7 years ago

Physical evidence was always extremely important. What has changed with technology is what types of evidence are more commonly examined. It used to be hairs and pollen and now it's touch DNA and cell phones.

657 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!

657 Votes