Forensics

​Gamma hydroxybutyric acid – aka GHB – is a popular "date rape" drug. Unfortunately for law enforcement officials, it can only be detected in the body for a few hours after being ingested. Thanks to new research, however, there may soon be another way of proving that someone has been given GHB.

Scientists may soon have a new tool to work with, when it comes to determining the age of deceased children based on their remains. Researchers have found that the skull's frontal sinus undergoes distinct changes throughout childhood, and those changes can be matched up to approximate ages.​

Luminol is a chemical used by forensic investigators, which glows blue when exposed to blood. It's typically combined with hydrogen peroxide as a coreactant, although this can produce false positives. Scientists have recently had better luck by instead mixing it with an antimalarial compound.​

By analyzing the molecular traces left behind on smartphone displays, scientists have worked out a way to paint pictures of user lifestyles – information that may one day help crime scene investigators close in on a suspect.​​​

Scientists have come up with a method that they are hailing as a game-changer for forensics, using analysis of hair samples to detect unique patterns of proteins that can identify humans up to 250 years after being left behind.

Now you can have your very own 3D printout of some of the bones of Lucy, the Beyoncé of fossils. Open-source scans of the 3.18 million-year-old hominid’s arm, shoulder and knee bones are now available to support a hypothesis that Lucy died falling from a tree.

For almost a century, the basement at University of Melbourne, has been home to a mummified head. Now using CT scans, 3D printing, forensic science and sculpture, a team has reconstructed the face of an Egyptian woman who lived 2,000 years ago, to learn more about her life, death, health and diet.

Crime scene investigators already have plenty to worry about. But now they've got one more foe; squirrels. We’re not joking. The rodents with razor-sharp incisors chew up crime scenes to maintain their dentition, says new research led by James Pokines at the Boston University School of Medicine.

A new fingerprint identification technology is promising to lighten the load for investigators, by using chemistry to determine whether prints belong to a male or female.​​

A study conducted by Dartmouth College has delved further than ever before into the authenticity of the infamous backyard photograph of John F. Kennedy assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Specifically, the team analyzed Oswald's pose in the picture – something that's long been a point of controversy.

Scientists have discovered that not only does everyone emit an invisible "microbial cloud," but that individuals can be recognized by the bacteria that make up their particular cloud.

Using a new technique, investigators could soon be better able to determine how many days ago fingerprints were left at a crime scene.