Ruby Howell 

Mr. Ippillitto 

Forensics Current Event #3

September 24th, 2019

Wilson, Clare. “Bacteria Could Identify Month-Old Suspicious Stains at Crime Scenes.” New Scientist, Health, 13 May 2019, www.newscientist.com/article/2202640-bacteria-could-identify-month-old-suspicious-stains-at-crime-scenes/.

In the recent article, Author Clare Wilson dives into the importance of stains found at crime scenes, and their importance in solving the crime. Titled, “Bacteria Could Identify Month-Old Suspicious Stains at Crime Scenes.”, the author provides significant research regarding the processes in which investigators go through in order to solve the crime that was committed. Wilson mentions how there is more than meets the eye when it comes to crime scenes, touching on how even the smallest amounts of DNA trace evidence can make the difference in finding the culprit of the crime:“If you see something that looks like a trace, you want to know if it’s important,”. 

The article explained that when bacteria is found at a crime scene, it must be tested for a variety of things. For example, it must be tested for any present toxic chemicals or drugs. These tests are known to take a couple of weeks, some even lasting for months. The author even mentions one of the tests used in studying bacteria found at crime scenes, such as using Luminol spray. The article explained that although this method can reveal blood spots it is in no way a completely reliable test because it is easily reactable with other substances around it. While explaining the scientific part of the use of bacteria in the investigation of crime scenes, the article also mentioned the legal side of this data collecting. According to the author, "The legal aspect of forensic testing separates it from clinical testing,", going on to explain that because the data could potentially be used in a court of law, there are some surprising legal requirements when it comes to recording data from a crime scene. Forensic scientists must use the “chain of custody”, meaning that there is a legal document created to record the testing and analysis of the data. 

Overall, the article did an excellent job explaining not only the scientific aspect of data collecting at crime scenes, but also expressing the legal side. While I did enjoy reading about the legal side of the article, the author did not go into much detail about the scientific part, and only discussed the broader aspects of studying bacteria data at a crime scene. In the future I would like to find a more scientific article that focused more on the DNA part of crime scene investigations, rather than the legal side.